2/4/32 

LIBRARY    OF    THE    THEOLOGICAL 

V 

SEMINARY 

PRINCETON,     N.    J. 

'/ 

PRESENTED  BY 

Estate  of 
GEORGE   B.    SMITH 

« 

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Division M  "^ 

ISIS" 

Sectton '.  S  t> 

f 

THE 
BOOK   OF  ISAIAH 


GEORGE  ADAM   SMITH,   M^.  A. 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES 


VOL.    I. -ISAIAH  I. -XXXIX 


NEW   ITORK: 
A.    C,    ARMSTRONG  AND   SON 
714  BROADWAY 
1890 


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CONTENTS. 


PACK 

Introduction      •••••••••      i-^^: 


Table  of  Dates 


BOOK   I. 

ISAIAH'S  PREFACE  AND  PROPHECIES  TO 
THE  DEATH  OF  AHAZ,  727  b.c. 

CHAP. 

I.   ISAIAH'S   PREFACE — THE  ARGUMENT   OF  THE   LORD  .  3 

ISAtAH  i. 

II.   THE   THREE  JERUSALEMS  .  •  «  i  •  •         IQ 

Isaiah  ii. — iv.    740 — 735  B.C. 

in.   THE   VINEYARD   OF   THE    LORD  .  •  •  •  •        35 

Isaiah  v.  ;  ix.  8 — x.  4.    735  B.C. 

IV.    ISAIAH'S   CALL   AND   CONSECRATION  .  .  *  •         57 

Isaiah  vi.    740.    Written  735  or  727  b.c.  (?). 

V.   THE   WORLD   IN    ISAIAH'S   DAY   AND   ISRAEL'S   GOD     .         QI 
With  a  Map. 

VI.    KING   AND   MESSIAH  j     PEOPLE   AND   CHURCH       •  .      IO3 

Isaiah  vii.— ix.  i — 8.    735—732  B.C. 

VII.   THE   MESSIAH     .  .  .  •  •  •  •  •      I3I 


CONTENTS. 


BOOK   II. 

PROPHECIES  FROM  THE  ACCESSION  OF  HEZEKIAH 
TO  THE  DEATH  OF  SARGON, 

727—705    B.C 
CHAP.  PAGE 

VIII.  god's  commonplace         .        .        .        ,        a        •     15' 
Isaiah  xxviii.    About  725  B.C. 

IX.   ATHEISM   OF   FORCE   AND   ATHEISM   OF   FEAR     ,  ,      168 

Isaiah  x.  5 — 34.    About  721  B.C. 

X.  THE  SPIRIT  OF   GOD   IN    MAN   AND   THE  ANIMALS       .      I79 
Isaiah  xi. ;  xii.    About  720  b.c.  (?). 

XI.   DRIFTING  TO   EGYPT,    720 — 705   B.C.  .  .  .      I96 

Isaiah  xx.  (711  b.c.)  ;  xxi.  i — 10  (710  B.C.);  xxxviii. ;  xxxix. 


BOOK   III. 

ORATIONS    ON    INTRIGUES    WITH  EGYPT, 
AND   ORACLES   ON  FOREIGN  NATIONS, 

705 — 702    B.c 

XII.   ARIEL,   ARIEL     .  ..•••••      209 

Isaiah  xxix.    About  703  b.c. 

XIII.  POLITICS   AND   FAITH  .  ,  «  »  «  ,221 

Isaiah  xxx.    About  702  b.c. 

XIV.  THREE  TRUTHS  ABOUT  GOD   •     •     •     •    •   238 

Isaiah  xxxi.    About  702  b.c. 

XV.   A    MAN  ;     OR,    CHARACTER     AND    THE    CAPACITY    TO 

DISCRIMINATE   CHARACTER  ....      248 

Isaiah  xxxii.  i — 8.    About  702  b.c.  (?). 

XVI.   ISAIAH   TO   WOMEN     ....»••      262 
Isaiah  xxxii.  9 — 20.     Date  Uncertain. 

XVII.    ISAIAH   TO   THE   FOREIGN    NATIONS    .  .  «  •      27I 

Isaiah  xiv.  24 — xxi. ;  xxiii.     Various  Date3. 

XVIII.   tyre;     or,   the   mercenary  SPIRIT  .  •  ,      2S8 

Isaiah  xxiii.    702  B.C. 


CONTE.\TS. 


BOOK   IV. 

JERUSALEM  AND  SENNACHERIB,  701  B.a 

CHAP.  PAGE 

XIX.   AT  THE   LOWEST   EBB 306 

Isaiah  i. ;  xxii.    Early  in  701  B.C. 

XX.   THE  TURN   OF  THE  TIDE  :   MORAL  EFFECTS  OF   FOR- 
GIVENESS   •  .      320 

Isaiah  xxii. ;  xxxiii.     Later  in  701  B.C. 

XXI.   OUR  GOD   A   CONSUMING    FIRE   .  .  ,  ,  •      ZZ^ 

Isaiah  xxxiii. 

XXII.   THE   RABSHAKEH  ;    OR,   LAST  TRIALS   OF   FAITH         .      343 
Isaiah  xxxvi.    701  B.C. 

XXIII.  THIS   IS  THE  VICTORY  ....   OUR   FAITH  .  .      352 

Isaiah  xxxvii.    701  B.C. 

XXIV.  A  REVIEW    OF    ISAIAHS    PREDICTIONS    CONCERNING 

THE   DELIVERANCE   OF   JERUSALEM      .  .  .      368 

XXV.    AN    OLD   TESTAMENT   BELIEVER'S  SICK-BED ;    OR,  THE 

DIFFERENCE   CHRIST   HAS   MADE  ,  .  .      375 

Isaiah  xxxviii. ;   xxxix.    Date  Uncertain. 

XXVL    HAD   ISAIAH   A   GOSPEL   FOR   THE   INDIVIDUAL?  •      389 

BOOK   V. 

PROPHECIES  NOT  RELATING  TO  ISAIAH'S 
TIME. 

XXVII.   BABYLON    AND   LUCIFER      ...  e  •      40$ 

Isaiah  xii.  12 — xiv.  23.    Date  Unknown. 

XXVin.   THE     EFFECT     OF     SIN     ON      OUR     MATERIAL     SUR- 
ROUNDINGS    •  •     416 

Isaiah  xxiv.    Date  Unknown. 

XXIX.   god's   POOR         .......  428 

Isaiah  xxv. — xxvii.;    xxxiv. ;    xxxv.     Dates  Unknown. 

XXX.   THE   RESURRECTION  .»».,..      444 

Isaiah  xxvi. ;   xxvii. 

Index  of  Chapters ,,    453 

Inde.\  of  Subjects     .        , 455 


INTRODUCTION. 


AS  the  following  Exposition  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah 
does  not  observe  the  canonical  arrangement  of 
the  chapters,  a  short  introduction  is  necessary  upon 
the  plan  which  has  been  adopted. 

The  size  and  the  many  obscurities  of  the  Book 
of  Isaiah  have  limited  the  common  use  of  it  in  the 
English  tongue  to  single  conspicuous  passages,  the 
very  brilliance  of  which  has  cast  their  context  and 
original  circumstance  into  deeper  shade.  The  intensity 
of  the  gratitude  with  which  men  have  seized  upon 
the  more  evangelical  passages  of  Isaiah,  as  well  as  the 
attention  which  apologists  for  Christiajiity  have  too 
partially  paid  to  his  intimations  of  the  Messiah,  has 
confirmed  the  neglect  of  the  rest  of  the  Book.  But  we 
might  as  well  expect  to  receive  an  adequate  conception 
of  a  great  statesman's  policy  from  the  epigrams  and 
perorations  of  his  speeches  as  to  appreciate  the  mes- 
'  sage,  which  God  has  sent  to  the  world  through  the 
Book  of  Isaiah,  from  a  few  lectures  on  isolated,  and 
often  dislocated,  texts.  No  book  of  the  Bible  is  less 
susceptible  of  treatment  apart  from  the  history  out  of 
which  it  sprang  than  the  Book  of  Isaiah ;  and  it  may 
be  added,  that  in  the  Old  Testament  at  least  there 
is  none  which,  when  set  in  its  original  circumstance 


INTRODUCTION. 


and  methodically  considered  as  a  whole,  appeals  with 
greater  power  to  the  modern  conscience.  Patiently 
to  learn  how  these  great  prophecies  were  suggested 
by,  and  first  met,  the  actual  occasions  of  human  life, 
is  vividly  to  hear  them  speaking  home  to  life  still. 

I  have,  therefore,  designed  an  arrangement  which 
embraces  all  the  prophecies,  but  treats  them  in  chrono- 
logical order.  I  will  endeavour  to  render  their  contents 
in  terms  which  appeal  to  the  modern  conscience  ;  but,  in 
order  to  be  successful,  such  an  endeavour  presupposes 
the  exposition  of  them  in  relation  to  the  history  which 
gave  them  birth.  In  these  volumes,  therefore,  nar- 
rative and  historical  exposition  will  take  precedence 
of  practical  application. 

Every  one  knows  that  the  Book  of  Isaiah  breaks 
into  two  parts  between  chaps,  xxxix.  and  xl.  Vol.  I. 
of  this  Exposition  covers  chaps,  i. — xxxix.  Vol.  II. 
will  treat  of  chaps,  xl. — Ixvi.  Again,  within  chaps. 
I. — xxxix.  another  division  is  apparent.  The  most  of 
these  chapters  evidently  bear  upon  events  within 
Isaiah's  own  career,  but  some  imply  historical  cir- 
cumstances that  did  not  arise  till  long  after  he  had 
passed  away.  Of  the  five  books  into  which  I  have 
divided  Vol.  I.,  the  first  four  contain  the  prophecies 
relating  to  Isaiah's  time  (740— 701  B.C.),  and  the  fifth 
the  prophecies  which  refer  to  later  events  (chaps,  xiii. — 
xiv.  22,  ',  xxiv. — xxvii. ;  xxxiv.  ;  xxxv.). 

The  prophecies,  whose  subjects  fall  within  Isaiah's 
times,  I  have  taken  in  chronological  order,  with  one 
exception.  This  exception  is  chap,  i.,  which,  although 
it  was  published  near  the  end  of  the  prophet's  life,  I 
treat  of  first,  because,  from  its  position  as  well  as  its 


INTRODUCTION. 


cliaracter,  it  is  evidf^ntly  intended  as  a  preface  to  the 
whole  book.  The  diffivculty  of  grouping  the  rest  of 
Isaiah's  oracles  and  orations  is  great.  The  plan  I 
have  adopted  is  not  perfect,  but  convenient.  Isaiah's 
prophesying  was  determined  chiefly  by  fo2ir  Assyrian 
invasions  of  Palestine :  the  first,  in  734 — 732  b.c,  by 
Tiglath-pileser  II.,  while  Ahaz  was  on  the  throne ; 
the  second  by  Salman assar  and  Sargon  in  725 — 720, 
during  which  Samaria  fell  in  721  ;  the  third  by 
Sargon,  712 — 710;  the  fourth  by  Sennacherib  in  701, 
which  last  three  occurred  while  Hezekiah  was  king  of 
Judah.  But  outside  the  Assyrian  invasions  there  were 
three  other  cardinal  dates  in  Isaiah's  life  :  740,  his  call 
to  be  a  prophet ;  727,  the  death  of  Ahaz,  his  enemy, 
and  the  accession  of  his  pupil,  Hezekiah;  and  705,  the 
death  of  Sargon,  for  Sargon's  death  led  to  the  rebellion 
of  the  Syrian  States,  and  it  was  this  rebellion  which 
brought  on  Sennacherib's  invasion.  Taking  all  these 
dates  into  consideration,  I  have  placed  in  Book  I.  all 
the  prophecies  of  Isaiah  from  his  call  in  740  to  the 
death  of  Ahaz  in  727 ;  they  lead  up  to  and  illustrate 
Tiglath-pileser's  invasion  ;  they  cover  what  I  have 
ventured  to  call  the  prophet's  apprenticeship,  during 
which  the  theatre  of  his  vision  was  mainly  the  internal 
life  of  his  people,  but  he  gained  also  his  first  outlook 
upon  the  world  beyond.  Book  II.  deals  with  the  pro- 
phecies from  the  accession  of  Hezekiah  in  727  to  the 
death  of  Sargon  in  705 — a  long  period,  but  few  pro- 
phecies, covering  both  Salmanassar's  and  Sargon's 
campaigns.  Book  III.  is  filled  with  the  prophecies 
from  705  to  702,  a  numerous  group,  called  forth 
from  Isaiah  by   the   rebellion  and   political  activity  in 


INTRODUCTION. 


Palestine  consequent  on  Snrgon's  death  and  pre- 
liminary to  Sennacherib's  arrival.  Book  IV.  contains 
the  prophecies  which  refer  to  Sennacherib's  actual 
invasion  of  Judah  and  siege  of  Jerusalem,  in  701. 

Of  course,  any  chronological  arrangement  of  Isaiah's 
prophecies  must  be  largely  provisional.  Only  some 
of  the  chapters  are  fixed  to  dates  past  possibility  of 
doubt.  The  Assyriology  which  has  helped  us  with 
these  must  yield  further  results  before  the  contro- 
versies can  be  settled  that  exist  with  regard  to  the 
rest.  I  have  explained  in  the  course  of  the  Exposition 
my  reasons  for  the  order  which  I  have  followed,  and 
need  only  say  here  that  I  am  still  more  uncertain 
about  the  generally  received  dates  of  chaps,  x.  5 — xi., 
xvii.  12 — 14  and  xxxii.  The  religious  problems, 
however,  were  so  much  the  same  during  the  whole 
of  Isaiah's  career  that  uncertainties  of  date,  if  they 
are  confined  to  the  limits  of  that  career,  make  little 
difference  to  the  exposition  of  the  book. 

Isaiah's  doctrines,  being  so  closely  connected  with  the 
life  of  his  day,  come  up  for  statement  at  many  points  of 
the  narrative,  in  which  this  Exposition  chiefly  consists. 
But  here  and  there  I  have  inserted  chapters  dealing 
summarily  with  more  important  topics,  such  as  The 
World  in  Isaiah's  Day  ;  The  Messiah  ;  Isaiah's  Power  of 
Prediction,  with  its  evidence  on  the  character  of  In- 
spiration ;  and  the  question.  Had  Isaiah  a  Gospel  for 
the  Individual  ?  A  short  index  will  guide  the  student 
to  Isaiah's  teaching  on  other  important  points  of 
theology  and  life,  such  as  holiness,  forgiveness, 
monotheism,   immortality,   the   Holy  Spirit,  etc. 

Treating    Isaiah's   prophecies   chronologically   as    I 


INTRODUCTION. 


have  done,  I  have  followed  a  method  which  put  me  on 
the  look-out  for  any  traces  of  development  that  his 
doctrine  might  exhibit.  I  have  recorded  these  as  they 
occur,  but  it  may  be  useful  to  collect  them  here.  In 
chaps,  ii. — iv.  we  have  the  struggle  of  the  apprentice 
prophet's  thoughts  irom  the  easy  religious  optimism 
of  his  generation,  through  unrelieved  convictions  of 
judgement  for  the  whole  people,  to  his  final  vision  of 
the  Divine  salvation  of  a  remnant.  Again,  chap.  vii. 
following  on  chaps,  ii. — vi.  proves  that  Isaiah's  belief 
in  the  Divine  righteousness  preceded,  and  was  the 
parent  of,  his  belief  in  the  Divine  sovereignty.  Again, 
his  successive  pictures  of  the  Messiah  grow  in  contents, 
and  become  more  spiritual.  And  again,  he  only  gradually 
arrived  at  a  clear  view  of  the  siege  and  deliverance 
of  Jerusalem.  One  other  fact  of  the  same  kind  has 
impressed  me  since  I  wrote  the  exposition  of  chap.  i. 
I  have  there  stated  that  it  is  plain  that  Isaiah's  con- 
science was  perfect  just  because  it  consisted  of  two 
complementary  parts  :  one  of  God  the  infinitely  High, 
exalted  in  righteousness,  far  above  the  thoughts  of 
His  people,  and  the  other  of  God  the  infinitely  Near, 
concerned  and  jealous  for  all  the  practical  details  of 
their  life.  I  ought  to  have  added  that  Isaiah  was 
more  under  the  influence  of  the  former  in  his  earlier 
years,  but  that  as  he  grev/  older  and  took  a  larger 
share  in  the  politics  of  Judah  it  was  the  latter  view  of 
God,  to  which  he  most  frequently  gave  expression. 
Signs  of  a  development  like  these  may  be  fairly  used 
to  correct  or  support  the  evidence  which  Assyriology 
affords  for  determining  the  chronological  order  of  the 
chapters. 


INTRODUCTION. 


But  these  signs  of  development  are  more  valuable 
for  the  proof  they  give  that  the  Book  of  Isaiah  contains 
the  experience  and  testimony  of  a  real  life :  a  life  that 
learned  and  suffered  and  grew,  and  at  last  triumphed. 
There  is  not  a  single  word  about  the  prophet's  birth^ 
or  childhood,  or  fortune,  or  personal  appearance,  or 
even  of  his  death.  But  between  silence  on  his  origin 
and  silence  on  his  end — and  perhaps  all  the  more 
impressively  because  of  these  clouds  by  which  it  is 
bounded — there  shines  the  record  of  Isaiah's  spiritual 
life  and  of  the  unfaltering  career  which  this  sustained, — 
clear  and  whole,  from  his  commission  by  God  in  the 
secret  experience  of  his  own  heart  to  his  vindication 
in  God's  supreme  tribunal  of  history.  It  is  not  only 
one  of  the  greatest,  but  one  of  the  most  finished 
and  intelligible,  lives  in  history.  My  main  purpose  in 
expounding  the  book  is  to  enable  English  readers,  not 
only  to  follow  its  course,  but  to  feel,  and  to  be  elevated 
by,  its  Divine  inspiration. 

I  miay  state  that  this  Exposition  is  based  upon  a 
close  study  of  the  Hebrew  text  of  Isaiah,  and  that  the 
translations  are  throughout  my  own,  except  in  one  or 
two  cases  where  I  have  quoted  from  the  revised  English 
version. 

With  regard  to  the  Revised  Version  of  Isaiah,  which 
I  have  had  opportunities  of  thoroughly  testing,  I  would 
like  to  say  that  my  sense  of  the  immense  service  which 
it  renders  to  English  readers  of  the  Bible  is  only  ex- 
ceeded by  my  wonder  that  the  Revisers  have  not  gone 
just  a  very  little  farther,  and  adopted  one  or  two  simple 
contrivances  which  are  in  the  line  of  their  own  im- 
provements   and    would    have   greatly    increased    our 


INTRODUCTION. 


large  debt  to  them.  For  instance,  why  did  they  not 
make  plain  by  inverted  commas  such  undoubted 
interruptions  of  the  prophet's  own  speech  as  that  of 
the  drunkards  in  chap,  xxviii.  9,  lO  ?  Not  to  know 
that  these  verses  are  spoken  in  mockery  of  Isaiah,  a 
mockery  to  which  he  replies  in  vv.  lO — 13,  is  to  miss 
the  meaning  of  the  whole  passage.  Again,  when  they 
orinted  Job  and  the  Psalms  in  metrical  form,  as 
well  as  the  Hymn  of  Hezekiah,  why  did  they  not 
do  the  same  with  other  poetical  passages  of  Isaiah, 
particularly  the  great  Ode  on  the  King  of  Babylon 
in  chap.  xiv.  ?  This  is  utterly  spoiled  in  the  form 
in  which  the  Revisers  have  printed  it.  What  English 
reader  would  guess  that  it  was  as  much  a  piece  of 
metre  as  any  of  the  Psalms  ?  Again,  why  have  they 
so  consistently  rendered  by  the  misleading  v>ord 
"judgement"  a  Hebrew  term  that  no  doubt  sometimes 
means  an  act  of  doom,  but  far  oftener  the  abstract 
quality  of  justice  ?  It  is  such  defects,  along  with  a 
frequent  failure  to  mark  the  proper  emphasis  in  a 
sentence,  that  have  led  me  to  substitute  a  more  literal 
version  of  my  own. 

I  have  not  thought  it  necessary  to  discuss  the  question 
of  the  chronology  of  the  period.  This  has  been  done 
so  often  and  so  recently.  See  Robertson  Smith's 
Prophets  of  Israel,  pp.  145,  402,  413,  Driver's  Isaiah, 
p.  12,  or  any  good  commentary. 

I  append  a  chronological  table,  and  an  index  to 
the  canonical  chapters  will  be  found  before  the  index 
of  subjects.  The  publishers  have  added  a  map  of 
Isaiah's  world  in  illustration  of  chap,  v. 


TABLE   OF  DATES. 

B.C. 

745.     Tiglath-pileser  II.  ascends  the  Assyrian  Throne. 

740.  Uzziah  dies.  Jotham  becomes  sole  King  of  Judah.  Isaiah's 
Inaugural  Vision  (Isa.  vi.). 

735.  Jotham  dies.  Ahaz  succeeds.  League  of  Syria  and  Northern 
Israel  against  Judah. 

734 — 732-  Sj'rian  Campaign  of  Tiglath-pileser  II.  Siege  and  Capture 
of  Damascus.  Invasion  of  Israel.  Captivity  of  Zebulon, 
Naphtali  and  Galilee  (Isa.  ix.  l).     Ahaz  visits  Damascus. 

727.  Salmanassar  IV.  succeeds  Tiglath-pileser  II.  Hezekiah  suc- 
ceeds Ahaz  (or  in  725  ?). 

725.     Salmanassar  marches  on  Syria. 

722  or  721.  Sargon  succeeds  Salmanassar.  Capture  of  Samaria. 
Captivity  of  all  Northern  Israel. 

720  or  719.     Sargon  defeats  Egj'pt  at  Rafla. ' 

711.     Sargon  invades  Syria  (Isa.  xx.).     Capture  of  Ashdod, 

709.     Sargon  takes  Babylon  from  Mcrodach-baladan. 

705.     Murder  of  Sargon.     Sennacherib  succeeds. 

701.  Sennacherib  invades  Syria.  Capture  of  Coast  Towns.  Siege 
of  Ekron  and  Battle  of  Eltekeh.  Invasion  of  Judah.  Sub- 
mission of  Hezekiah.  Jerusalem  spared.  Return  of 
Assyrians  with  the  Rabshakeh  to  Jerusalem,  while  Sen- 
nacherib's Army  marches  on  Egypt.  Disaster  to  Sennacherib's 
Army  near  Pelusium.  Disappearance  of  Assyrians  from 
before  Jerusalem — all  happening  in  this  order. 

697  or  696.     Death  of  Hezekiah.     Manasseh  succeeds. 

681.     Death  of  Sennacherib. 

607.     Fall  of  Nineveh  and  Assyria.     Babylon  supreme.     Jeremiah. 

599.     First  Deportation  of  Jews  to  Babylon  by  Nebuchadnezzar. 

588.     Jerusalem  destroyed.     Second  Deportation  of  Jews. 

53S.  Cyrus  captures  Babylon.  First  Return  of  Jewish  Exiles,  under 
Zerubbabel,  happens  soon  after. 

458.     Second  Return  of  Jev^ish  Exiles,  under  Ezra. 

ERRATA. 

P.  57,  third  line  of  title  :  read  or  727^ 
,f   85,  line  15  :  for  it  read  ihern. 


BOOK  I. 

PREFACE  AND 

PROPHECIES   TO   THE  DEATH  OF  AHAZ, 

yz'j  B.C. 


VOL.  I 


Isaiah:    i.    The  Preface. 

ii.— iv.      740—735  B.C. 
„         v.,  ix.  8— X.  4.     735  B.C. 
„         vi.     About  735  B.C. 
„        vii.— ix.  7.     734—732  B.C. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE  ARGUMENT  OF  THE  LORD  AND  ITS  CONCLUSION. 
Isaiah  i. — His  General  Preface. 

THE  first  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah  owes  its 
position  not  to  its  date,  but  to  its  character. 
It  was  published  late  in  the  prophet's  life.  The  seventh 
verse  describes  the  land  as  overrun  by  foreign  soldiery, 
and  such  a  calamity  befell  Judah  only  in  the  last  two 
of  the  four  reigns  over  which  the  first  verse  extends 
Isaiah's  prophesying.  In  the  reign  of  Ahaz,  Judah  was 
invaded  by  Syria  and  Northern  Israel,  and  some  have 
dated  chapter  i.  from  the  year  of  that  invasion,  734  b.c. 
In  the  reign  again  of  Hezekiah  some  have  imagined,  in 
order  to  account  for  the  chapter,  a  swarming  of 
neighbouring  tribes  upon  Judah ;  and  Mr.  Cheyne,  to 
whom  regarding  the  history  of  Isaiah's  time  we  ought 
to  listen  with  the  greatest  deference,  has  supposed 
an  Assyrian  invasion  in  71 1,  under  Sargon.  But 
hardly  of  this,  and  certainly  not  of  that,  have  we 
adequate  evidence,  and  the  only  other  invasion  of 
Judah  in  Isaiah's  lifetime  took  place  under  Sennacherib, 
in  701.  For  many  reasons  this  Assyrian  invasion 
is  to  be  preferred  to  that  by  Syria  and  Ephraim  in 
734  as  the  occasion  of  this  prophecy.  But  there 
is  really  no  need  to  be  determined  on  the  point.  The 
prophecy  has  been  lifted  out  of  its  original  circumstance 


THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


and  placed  in  the  front  of  the  book,  perhaps  by  Isaiah 
himself,  as  a  general  introduction  to  his  collected  pieces. 
It  owes  its  position,  as  we  have  said,  to  its  character. 
I  It  is  a  clear,  complete  statement  of  the  points  which 
were  at  issue  between  the  Lord  and  His  own  all  the 
time  Isaiah  was  the  Lord's  prophet.  It  is  the  most 
representative  of  Isaiah's  prophecies,  a  summary  is 
found,  perhaps  better  than  any  other  single  chapter 
of  the  Old  Testament,  of  the  substance  of  prophetic 
doctrine,  and  a  very  vivid  illustration  of  the  prophetic 
spirit  and  method.  We  propose  to  treat  it  here  as 
introductory  to  the  main  subjects  and  lines  of  Isaiah's 
teaching,  leaving  its  historical  references  till  we  arrive 
in  due  course  at  the  probable  year  of  its  origin,  701  B.C.* 

Isaiah's  preface  is  in  the  form  of  a  Trial  or  Assize. 
Ewald  calls  it  "  The  Great  Arraignment."  There  are 
all  the  actors  in  a  judicial  process.  It  is  a  Crown  case, 
and  God  is  at  once  Plaintiff  and  Judge.  He  delivers 
both  the  Complaint  in  the  beginning  (vv.  2,  3)  and 
the  vSentence  in  the  end.  The  Assessors  are  Heaven 
and  Earth,  whom  the  Lord's  herald  invokes  to  hear  the 
Lord's  plea  (ver.  2).  The  people  of  Judah  are  the 
Defendants.  The  charge  against  them  is  one  of  brutish, 
ingrate  stupidity,  breaking  out  into  rebeUion.  The 
Witness  is  the  prophet  himself,  whose  evidence  on  the 
guilt  of  his  people  consists  in  recounting  the  misery 
that  has  overtaken  their  land  (vv.  4 — 9),  along  with  their 
civic  injustice  and  .social  cruelty — sins  of  the  upper  and 
ruling  classes  (vv.  10,  17,  21—23).  The  people's  Plea- 
in-defence,  laborious  worship  and  multiplied  sacrifice, 
is  repelled  and  exposed  (vv.  10 — 17).  And  the  Trial 
is  concluded — Covtc  nozv,  let  us  bring  our  reasoning 
*  See  p  343 


i.]  THE  ARGUMENT  OF  THE  LORD.  5 

to  a  close,  saith  the  Lord — by  God's  offer  of  pardon 
to  a  people  thoroughly  convicted  (ver.  18).  On 
which  follow  the  Conditions  of  the  Future :  happiness 
is  sternly  made  dependent  on  repentance  and  right- 
eousness (vv.  19,  20).  And  a  supplementary  oracle 
is  given  (vv.  24 — 31),  announcing  a  time  of  affliction, 
through  which  the  nation  shall  pass  as  through  a 
furnace;  rebels  and  sinners  shall  be  consumed,  but 
God  will  redeem  Zion,  and  with  her  a  remnant  of  the 
people. 

That  is  the  plan  of  the  chapter — a  Trial  at  Law. 
Though  it  disappears  under  the  exceeding  weight  of 
thought  the  prophet  builds  upon  it,  do  not  let  us  pass 
hurriedly  from  it,  as  if  it  were  only  a  scaffolding. 

That  God  should  argue  at  all  is  the  magnificent 
truth  on  which  our  attention  must  fasten,  before  we 
inquire  what  the  argument  is  about,  God  reasons  with 
man — that  is  the  first  article  of  religion  according  to 
Isaiah.  Revelation  is  not  magical,  but  rational  and 
moral.  Religion  is  reasonable  intercourse  between  one 
intelligent  Being  and  another.  God  works  upon  man 
first  through  conscience. 

Over  against  the  prophetic  view  of  religion  sprawls 
and  reeks  in  this  same  chapter  the  popular — religion  as 
smoky  sacrifice,  assiduous  worship,  and  ritual.  The 
people  to  whom  the  chapter  was  addressed  were  not 
idolaters.*  Hezekiah's  reformation  was  over.  Judah 
worshipped  her  own  God,  whom  the  prophet  introduces 
not  as  for  the  first  time,  but  by  Judah's  own  familiar 

*  At  least  those  to  whom  the  first  twenty-three  verses  were 
addressed.  There  is  distinct  blame  of  worshipping  in  the  groves  of 
Ashcrah  in  the  appended  oracle  (vv.  24 — 31),  which  is  proof  that  this 
oracle  was  given  at  an  earlier  period  than  the  rest  of  the  chapte*  —a 
fair  instance  of  the  very  great  difliculty  we  have  in  determiniuf  Uie 
dates  of  the  various  prophecies  of  Isaiah, 


/ 


THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


names  for  Him — Jehovah,  Jehovah  of  Hosts,  the  Holy 
One  of  Israel,  the  Mighty  One,  or  Hero,  of  Israel. 
In  this  hour  of  extreme  danger  the  people  are  waiting 
on  Jehovah  with  great  pains  and  cost  of  sacrifice. 
They  pra^^,  they  sacrifice,  they  solemnize  to  perfection. 
But  they  do  not  know,  they  do  not  consider;  this 
is  the  burden  of  their  offence.  To  use  a  better 
word,  they  do  not  think.  They  are  God's  grown-up 
children  (ver.  2) — children,  that  is  to  say,  like  the  son 
of  the  parable,  with  native  instincts  for  their  God; 
and  grown  up — that  is  to  say,  with  reason  and  con- 
science developed.  But  they  use  neither,  stupider  than 
very  beasts.  Israel  doth  not  know,  my  people  doth  not_ 
consider.  In  all  their  worship  conscience  is  asleep, 
and  they  are  drenched  in  wickedness.  Isaiah  puts 
their  life  in  an  epigram — wickedness  and  worship:  I 
cannot  away,  saith  the  Lord,  with  wickedness  and  worship 
(ver.  13). 

But  the  pressure  and  stimulus  of  the  prophecy  lie  in 
this,  that  although  the  people  have  silenced  conscience  and 
are  steeped  in  a  stupidity  worse  than  ox  or  ass,  God  will 
not  leave  them  alone.  He  forces  Himself  upon  them ; 
He  compels  them  to  think.  In  the  order  and  calmness 
of  nature  (ver.  2),  apart  from  catastrophe  nor  seeking 
to  influence  by  an}-  miracle,  God  speaks  to  men  by  the 
reasonable  words  of  His  prophet.  Before  He  will 
publish  salvation  or  intimate  disaster  He  must  rouse 
and  startle  conscience.  His  controversy  precedes  alike 
His  peace  and  His  judgements.  An  awakened  con- 
science is  His  prophet's  first  demand.  Before^eligion 
can  be  prayer,  or  sacrifice,  or  any  acceptable  worship,  it 
must  be  a  reasoning  together  with  God. 

That  is  what  mean  the  arrival  of  the  Lord,  and  the 
opening  of  the  assize,  and  the  call  to  know  and  con- 


L]  THE  ARGUMENT  OF  THE   LOUD.  7 

sider.  It  is  the  terrible  necessity  which  comes  back 
upon  men,  however  engrossed  or  drugged  they  may  be, 
to  pass  their  Hves  in  moral  judgement  before  themselves  ; 
a  debate  to  which  there  'is  never  any  closure,  in  which 
forgotten  things  will  not  be  forgotten,  but  a  man  "  is 
compelled  to  repeat  to  himself  things  he  desires  to  be 
silent  about,  and  to  listen  to  what  he  does  not  wish  to 
hear,  .  .  .  yielding  to  that  mysterious  power  which 
says  to  him,  Think.  One  can  no  more  prevent  the 
mind  from  returning  to  an  idea  than  the  sea  from 
returning  to  a  shore.  With  the  sailor  this  is  called 
the  tide;  with  the  guilty  it  is  called  remorse.  God 
upheaves  the  soul  as  well  as  the  ocean."  *  Upon  that 
ever-returning  and  resistless  tide  Hebrew  prophecy, 
with  its  Divine  freight  of  truth  and  comfort,  rides  into 
the  lives  of  men.  This  first  chapter  of  Isaiah  is 
just  the  parable  of  the  awful  compulsion  to  think 
wliich  men  call  conscience.  The  stupidest  of  genera- 
tions, formal  and  fat-hearted,  are  forced  to  consider  and 
to  reason.  The  Lord's  court  and  controversy  are 
opened,  and  men  are  whipped  into  them  from  His 
Temple  and  His  altar. 

For  even  religion  and  religiousness,  the  common 
man's  commonest  refuge  from  conscience — not  only 
in  Isaiah's  time  —  cannot  exempt  from  this  writ. 
Would  we  be  judged  by  our  moments  of  worship, 
by  our  temple-treading,  which  is  Hebrew  for  church- 
going,  by  the  wealth  of  our  sacrifice,  by  our 
ecclesiastical  position  ?  This  chapter  drags  us  out 
before  the  austerity  and  incorruptibleness  of  Nature. 
The  assessors  of  the  Lord  are  not  the  Temple  nor  the 
Law,  but  Heaven  and  Earth — not  ecclesiastical  conven- 
tions, but  the  grand  moral  fundamentals  of  the  universe, 
*  Les  Miseiables :  " a  Tempest  in  a  Brain." 


THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


purity,  order  and  obedience  to  God.  Religiousness, 
however,  is  not  the  only  refuge  from  which  we  shall 
find  Isaiah  startling  men  with  the  trumpet  of  the  Lord's 
assize.  He  is  equally  intolerant  of  the  indulgent 
silence  and  compromises  of  the  world,  that  give  men 
courage  to  say.  We  are  no  worse  than  others.  Men's 
lives,  it  is  a  constant  truth  of  his,  have  to  be  argued 
out  not  with  the  world,  but  with  God.  If  a  man  will 
be  silent  upon  shameful  and  uncomfortable  things,  he 
cannot.  His  thoughts  are  not  his  own  ;  God  will  think 
them  for  him  as  God  thinks  them  here  for  unthinking 
Israel.  Nor  are  the  practical  and  intellectual  distrac- 
tions of  a  busy  life  any  refuge  from  conscience.  When 
the  politicians  of  Judah  seek  escape  from  judgement  by 
plunging  into  deeper  intrigue  and  a  more  bustling 
policy,  Isaiah  is  fond  of  pointing  out  to  them  that 
they  are  only  forcing  judgement  nearer.  They  do  but 
sharpen  on  other  objects  the  thoughts  whose  edge  must 
some  day  turn  upon  themselves. 

What  is  this  questioning  nothing  holds  away,  nothing 
stills,  and  nothing  wears  out  ?  It  is  the  voice  of  God 
Himself,  and  its  insistence  is  therefore  as  irresistible  as 
its  effect  is  universal.  That  is  not  mere  rhetoric  which 
opens  the  Lord's  controversy :  Hear,  O  heavens,  and 
give  ear,  O  earth,  for  the  Lord  hath  spoken.  All  the 
world  changes  to  the  man  in  whom  conscience  lifts  up 
her  voice,  and  to  the  guilty  Nature  seems  attentive  and 
aware.  Conscience  compels  heaven  and  earth  to  act 
as  her  assessors,  because  she  is  the  voice,  and  they 
the  creatures,  of  God.  This  leads  us  to  emphasize 
another  feature  of  the  prophecy. 

We  have  called  this  chapter  a  trial-at-law ;  but 
it  is  far  more  a  personal  than  a  legal  controversy ;  of 
the  formally  forensic  there  is  very  little  about  it.    Some 


i.]  THE  ARGUMENT  OF  THE  LORD.  9 

theologies  and  many  preachers  have  attempted  the 
conviction  of  the  human  conscience  by  the  technicahties 
of  a  system  of  law,  or  by  appealing  to  this  or  that  historical 
covenant,  or  by  the  obligations  of  an  intricate  and  burden- 
some morality.  This  is  not  Isaiah's  v^^ay.  His  gene- 
ration is  here  judged  by  no  system  of  law  or  ancient 
covenants,  but  by  a  living  Person  and  by  His  treatment 
of  them — a  Person  who  is  a  Friend  and  a  Father.  It 
is  not  Judah  and  the  law  that  are  confronted  ;  it  is 
Judah  and  Jehovah.  There  is  no  contrast  between 
the  life  of  this  generation  and  some  glorious  estate  from 
which  they  or  their  forefathers  have  fallen ;  but  they 
are  made  to  hear  the  voice  of  a  living  and  present 
God  :  /  have  nourished  and  brought  up  children,  and 
they  have  rebelled  against  Me.  Isaiah  begins  where 
Saul  of  Tarsus  began,  who,  though  he  afterwards 
elaborated  with  wealth  of  detail  the  awful  indictment 
of  the  abstract  law  against  man,  had  never  been  able  to 
do  so  but  for  that  first  confronting  with  the  Personal 
Deity,  Said,  Saul,  why  persecutest  thou  Me  ?  Isaiah's 
ministry  started  from  the  vision  of  the  Lord ;  and  it 
was  no  covenant  or  theory,  but  the  Lord  Himself,  who 
remained  the  prophet's  conscience  to  the  end. 

But  though  the  living  God  is  Isaiah's  one  ex- 
planation of  conscience,  it  is  God  in  two  aspects, 
the  moral  effects  of  which  are  opposite,  yet  comple- 
mentary. In  conscience  men  are  defective  by  forgetting 
either  the  sublime  or  the  practical,  but  Isaiah's  strength 
is  to  do  justice  to  both.  With  him  God  is  first  the 
infinitely  High,  and  then  equally  the  infinitely  Near. 
The  Lord  is  exalted  in  righteousness  !  yes,  and  sublimely 
above  the  people's  vulgar  identifications  of  His  will  with 
their  own  safety  and  success,  but  likewise  concerned 
with  every  detail  of  their  politics  and  social  behaviour, 


THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


not  to  be  relegated  to  the  Temple,  where  they  were 
wont  to  confine  Him,  but  by  His  prophet  descending  to 
their  markets  and  councils,  with  His  own  opinion  of 
their  policies,  interfering  in  their  intrigues,  meeting 
Ahaz  at  the  conduit  of  the  upper  pool  in  the  highway 
of  the  fuller's  field,  and  fastening  eyes  of  glory  on  every 
pin  and  point  of  the  dress  of  the  daughters  of  Zion. 
He  is  no  merely  transcendent  God.  Though  He  be  the 
High  and  Holy  One,  He  will  discuss  each  habit  of  the 
people,  and  argue  upon  its  merits  every  one  of  their 
policies.  His  constant  cry  to  them  is  Come  and  let  us 
reason  together,  and  to  hear  it  is  to  have  a  conscience. 
Indeed,  Isaiah  lays  more  stress  on  this  intellectual  side 
of  the  moral  sense  than  on  the  other,  and  the  frequency 
with  which  in  this  chapter  he  employs  the  expressions 
know,  and  consider,  and  reason,  is  characteristic  of  all 
his  prophesying.  Even  the  most  superficial  reader 
must  notice  how  much  this  prophet's  doctrine  of  con- 
science and  repentance  harmonizes  with  the  metanoia  of 
New  Testament  preaching. 

This  doctrine,  that  God  has  an  interest  in  every 
detail  of  practical  life  and  will  argue  it  out  with 
men,  led  Isaiah  to  a  revelation  of  God  quite  peculiar 
to  himself.  For  the  Psalmist  it  is  enough  that  his 
soul  coine  to  God,  the  living  God.  It  is  enough  for 
other  prophets  to  awe  the  hearts  of  their  generations 
by  revealing  the  Holy  One;  but  Isaiah,  with  his  in- 
tensely practical  genius,  and  sorely  tried  by  the  stupid 
inconsistency  of  his  people,  bends  himself  to  make 
them  understand  that  God  is  at  least  a  reasonable 
Being.  Do  not,  his  constant  cry  is,  and  he  puts  it 
sometimes  in  almost  as  many  words — do  not  act  as 
if  there  were  a  Fool  on  the  throne  of  the  universe, 
which  you  virtually  do  when  you  take  these  meaning- 


i.]  THE   ARGUMENT  OF  THE  LORD.  ii 

less  forms  of  worship  as  your  only  intercourse  with 
Him,  and  beside  them  practise  your  rank  iniquities, 
as  if  He  did  not  see  nor  care.  We  need  not  here  do 
more  than  mention  the  passages  in  which,  sometimes 
b}'-  a  word,  Isaiah  stings  and  startles  self-conscious 
poHticians  and  sinners  beetle-blind  in  sin,  with  the 
sense  that  God  Himself  takes  an  interest  in  their 
deeds  and  has  His  own  working-plans  for  their  life. 
On  the  land  question  in  Judah  (v.  9)  :  In  mine  ears, 
saith  the  Lord  of  hosts.  When  the  people  were  para- 
lyzed by  calamity,  as  if  it  had  no  meaning  or  term 
(xxviii.  29) :  This  also  conicth  forth  from  the  Lord  of  hosts, 
which  is  wonderful  in  counsel  and  excellent  in  effectual 
working.  Again,  when  they  were  panic-stricken,  and 
madly  sought  by  foolish  ways  their  own  salvation 
(xxx.  18):  For  the  Lord  is  a  God  of  judgement — i.e., 
of  principle,  method,  law,  with  His  own  way  and  time 
for  doing  things — blessed  are  all  they  that  wait  for 
Him.  And  again,  when  politicians  were  carried  away 
by  the  cleverness  and  success  of  their  own  schemes 
(xxxi.  2)  :  Yet  He  also  is  wise,  or  clever.  It  was  only 
a  personal  application  of  this  Divine  attribute  when 
Isaiah  heard  the  word  of  the  Lord  give  him  the 
minutest  directions  for  his  own  practice  —  as,  for 
instance,  at  what  exact  point  he  was  to  meet  Ahaz 
(vii.  3) ;  or  that  he  was  to  take  a  board  and  write 
upon  it  in  the  vulgar  charat  ter  (viii.  i);  or  that  he 
was  to  strip  frock  and  sandals,  and  walk  without  them 
for  three  years  (xx).  Where  common  men  feel  con- 
science only  as  something  vague  and  inarticulate,  a 
flavour,  a  sting,  a  foreboding,  the  obligation  of  work, 
the  constraint  of  affection,  Isaiah  heard  the  word  of  the 
Lord,  clear  and  decisive  on  matters  of  policy,  and 
definite  even  to  the  details  of  method  and  style. 


12  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

Isaiah's  conscience,  then,  was  perfect,  because  it  was 
two-fold  :  God  is  holy;  God  is  practical.  If  there  be  the 
glory,  the  purity  as  of  fire,  of  His  Presence  to  overawe, 
there  is  His  unceasing  inspection  of  us,  there  is  His 
interest  in  the  smallest  details  of  our  life,  there  are  His 
fixed  laws,  from  regard  for  all  of  which  no  amount 
of  religious  sensibility  may  relieve  us.  Neither  of 
these  halves  of  conscience  can  endure  by  itself.  If 
we  forget  the  first  we  may  be  prudent  and  for  a 
time  clever,  but  will  also  grow  self-righteous,  and  in 
time  self-righteousness  means  stupidity  too.  If  we 
forget  the  second  we  may  be  very  devotional,  but  cannot 
escape  becoming  blindly  and  inconsistently  immoral. 
Hypocrisy  is  the  result  either  way,  whether  we  forget 
how  high  God  is  or  whether  we  forget  how  near. 

To  these  two  great  articles  of  conscience,  however — 
God  is  high  and  God  is  near — the  Bible  adds  a  greater 
third,  God  is  Love.  This  is  the  uniqueness  and  glory 
of  the  Bible's  interpretation  of  conscience.  Other 
writings  may  equal  it  in  enforcing  the  sovereignty  and 
detailing  the  minutely  practical  bearings  of  conscience  : 
the  Bible  alone  tells  man  how  much  of  conscience  is 
nothing  but  God's  love.  It  is  a  doctrine  as  plainly 
laid  down  as  the  doctrine  about  chastisement,  though 
not  half  so  much  recognised — Whom  the  Lord  loveth 
He  chastcncth.  What  is  true  of  the  material  pains  and 
penalties  of  life  is  equally  true  of  the  inward  convictions, 
frets,  threats  and  fears,  which  will  not  leave  stupid  man 
alone.  To  men  with  their  obscure  sense  of  shame,  and 
restlessness,  and  servitude  to  sin  the  Bible  plainly  says, 
"  You  are  able  to  sin  because  you  have  turned  your 
back  to  the  love  of  God ;  you  are  unhappy  because  you 
do  not  take  that  love  to  your  heart ;  the  bitterness  of 
your  remorse  is  that  it  is  love  against  which  you  are 


i.]  THE  ARGUMENT  OF  THE  LORD.  13 

ungrateful."  Conscience  is  not  the  Lord's  persecution, 
but  His  jealous  pleading,  and  not  the  fierceness  of  His 
anger,  but  the  reproach  of  His  love.  This  is  the  Bible's 
doctrine  throughout,  and  it  is  not  absent  from  the 
chapter  we  are  considering.  Love  gets  the  first  word 
even  in  the  indictment  of  this  austere  assize  :  /  have 
nourished  and  brought  up  children,  and  they  have  rebelled 
against  Me.  Conscience  is  already  a  Father's  voice : 
the  recollection,  as  it  is  in  the  parable  of  the  prodigal, 
of  a  Father's  mercy ;  the  reproach,  as  it  is  with 
Christ's  lamentation  over  Jerusalem,  of  outraged  love. 
We  shall  find  not  a  few  passages  in  Isaiah,  which 
prove  that  he  was  in  harmony  with  all  revelation  upon 
this  point,  that  conscience  is  the  reproach  of  the  love 
of  God. 

But  when  that  understanding  of  conscience  breaks 
out  in  a  sinner's  heart  forgiveness  cannot  be  far  away. 
Certainly  penitence  is  at  hand.  And  therefore,  because 
of  all  books  the  Bible  is  the  only  one  which  interprets 
conscience  as  the  love  of  God,  so  is  it  the  only  one  that 
can  combine  His  pardon  with  His  reproach,  and  as 
Isaiah  now  does  in  a  single  verse,  proclaim  His  free 
forgiveness  as  the  conclusion  of  His  bitter  quarrel. 
Come,  let  us  bring  otir  reasoning  to  a  close,  saith  the 
Lord.  Though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  white 
as  snoiv;  though  they  be  red  like  crimson,  they  shall  be 
as  wool.  Our  version,  Come,  and  let  us  reason  together, 
gives  no  meaning  here.  So  plain  an  offer  of  pardon  is 
not  reasoning  together ;  it  is  bringing  reasoning  to  an 
end ;  it  is  the  settlement  of  a  dispute  that  has  been  in 
progress.  Therefore  we  translate,  with  Mr.  Cheyne,  Lex 
us  bring  our  reasoning  to  an  end.  And  how  pardon  can 
be  the  end  and  logical  conclusion  of  conscience  is  clear 
to  us,  who  have  seen  how  much  of  conscience  is  love^ 


14  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

and  that  the  Lord's  controversy  is  the  reproach  of 
His  Father's  heart,  and  His  jealousy  to  make  His  own 
consider  all  His  way  of  mercy  towards  them. 

But  the  prophet  does  not  leave  conscience  alone  with 
its  personal  and  inward  results.  He  rouses  it  to  its 
social  applications.  The  sins  with  which  the  Jews  are 
charged  in  this  charge  of  the  Lord  are  public  sins.  The 
whole  people  is  indicted,  but  it  is  the  judges,  princes 
and  counsellors  who  are  denounced.  Judah's  disasters, 
which  she  seeks  to  meet  by  worship,  are  due  to  civic 
faults,  bribery,  corruption  of  justice,  indifference  to  the 
rights  of  the  poor  and  the  friendless.  Conscience  with 
Isaiah  is  not  what  it  is  with  so  much  of  the  religion  of 
to-day,  a  cul  de  saCj  into  which  the  Lord  chases  a  man 
and  shuts  him  up  to  Himself,  but  it  is  a  thoroughfare  by 
which  the  Lord  drives  the  man  out  upon  the  world  and 
its  manifold  need  of  him.  There  is  little  dissection 
and  less  study  of  individual  character  with  Isaiah.  He 
has  no  time  for  it.  Life  is  too  much  about  him, 
and  his  God  too  much  interested  in  life.  What  may 
be  called  the  more  personal  sins — drunkenness,  vanity  of 
dress,  thoughtlessness,  want  of  faith  in  God  and  patience 
to  wait  for  Him — are  to  Isaiah  more  social  than  individual 
symptoms,  and  it  is  for  their  public  and  political  effects 
that  he  mentions  them.  Forgiveness  is  no  end  in  itself, 
but  the  opportunity  of  social  service ;  not  a  sanctuary  in 
which  Isaiah  leaves  men  to  sing  its  praises  or  form 
doctrines  of  it,  but  a  gateway  through  which  he  leads 
God's  people  upon  the  world  with  the  cry  that  rises  from 
him  here :  Seek  justice,  relieve  the  oppressed,  judge  the 
fatherless,  plead  for  the  widow. 

Before  we  pass  from  this  form  in  which  Isaiah 
figures  religion  we  must  deal  with  a  suggestion  it 
raises.     No  modern  mind  can  come  into  this  ancient 


i.]  THE  ARGUMENT  OF  THE  LORD.  i; 

court  of  the  Lord's  controversy  without  taking  advan- 
tage of  its  open  forms  to  put  a  question  regarding  the 
rights  of  man  there.  That  God  should  descend  to 
argue  with  men,  what  licence  does  this  give  to  men  ? 
If  religion  be  reasonable  controversy  of  this  kind,  what 
is  the  place  of  doubt  in  it  ?  Is  not  doubt  man's  side 
of  the  argument  ?  Has  he  not  also  questions  to  put — 
the  Almighty  from  his  side  to  arraign  ?  For  God  has 
Himself  here  put  man  on  a  level  with  Him,  saying, 
Come,  and  let  us  reason  together. 

A  temper  of  this  kind,  though  not  strange  to  the  Old 
Testament,  lies  beyond  the  horizon  of  Isaiah.  The 
only  challenge  of  the  Almighty  which  in  any  of  his  pro- 
phecies he  reports  as  rising  from  his  own  countrymen  is 
the  bravado  of  certain  drunkards  (chaps,  v.  and  xxviii.). 
Here  and  elsewhere  it  is  the  very  opposite  temper  from 
honest  doubt  which  he  indicts — the  temper  that  does 
not  know,  that  docs  not  consider.  Ritualism  and  sen- 
sualism are  to  Isaiah  equally  false,  because  equally 
unthinking.  The  formalist  and  the  fleshly  he  classes 
together,  because  of  their  stupidity.  What  does  it 
matter  whether  a  man's  conscience  and  intellect  be 
stifled  in  his  own  fat  or  under  the  clothes  with  which 
he  dresses  himself?  They  are  stifled,  and  that  is  the 
main  thing.  To  the  formalist  Isaiah  says,  Israel  doth 
not  know,  my  people  doth  not  consider;  to  the  fleshly 
(chap,  v.),  My  people  are  gone  into  captivity  for  want  of 
knowledge.  But  knowing  and  considering  are  just  that 
of  which  doubt,  in  its  modern  sense,  is  the  abundance, 
and  not  the  defect.  The  mobility  of  mind,  the  curiosity, 
the  moral  sensitiveness,  the  hunger  that  is  not  satisfied 
with  the  chaff  of  formal  and  unreal  answers,  the  spirit 
to  find  out  truth  for  one's  self,  wrestling  with  God — this 
is  the  very  temper  Isaiah  would  have  welcomed  in  a 


i6  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

• ;p 

people  whose  sliiggishnec^s  of  reason  was  as  justly 
blamed  by  him  as  the  grossness  of  their  moral  sense. 
And  if  revelation  be  of  the  form  in  which  Isaiah  so 
prominently  sets  it,  and  the  whole  Bible  bears  him  out 
in  this — if  revelation  be  this  argumentative  and  reason- 
able process,  then  human  doubt  has  its  part  in 
revelation.  It  is,  indeed,  man's  side  of  the  argument, 
and  as  history  shows,  has  often  helped  to  the  elucida- 
tion of  the  points  at  issue. 

Merely  intellectual  scepticism,  however,  is  not  within 
Isaiah's  horizon.  He  would  never  have  employed 
(nor  would  any  other  prophet)  our  modern  habits  of 
doubt,  except  as  he  employs  these  intellectual  terms, 
to  knoiv  and  to  consider — viz.,  as  instruments  of  moral 
search  and  conviction.  Had  he  lived  now  he  would 
have  been  found  among  those  few  great  prophets 
who  use  the  resources  of  the  human  intellect  to 
expose  the  moral  state  of  humanity ;  who,  like  Shake- 
speare and  Hugo,  turn  man's  detective  and  reflective 
processes  upon  his  own  conduct ;  who  make  himself 
stand  at  the  bar  of  his  conscience.  And  truly  to  have 
doubt  of  everything  in  heaven  and  earth,  and  never  to 
doubt  one's  self,  is  to  be  guilty  of  as  stiff  and  stupid 
a  piece  of  self-righteousness  as  the  religious  formalists 
whom  Isaiah  exposes.  But  the  moral  of  the  chapter 
is  plainly  what  we  have  shown  it  to  be,  that  a 
man  cannot  stifle  doubt  and  debate  about  his  own 
heart  or  treatment  of  God  ;  whatever  else  he  thinks 
about  and  judges,  he  cannot  help  judging  himself. 

Note  on  the  Place  of  Nature  in  the  Argument  of  the 
Lord. — The  office  which  the  Bible  assigns  to  Nature 
in  the  controversy  of  God  with  man  is  fourfold — 
Assessor,  Witness,  Man's  Fellow-Convict,  and  Doomster 
or  Executioner.    Taking  these  backward  : — I.  Scripture 


i.]  THE  ARGUMENT  OF  THE  LORD.  17 

frequently  exhibits  Nature  as  the  doomstcr  of  the  Lord. 
Nature  has  a  terrible  power  of  flashing  back  from  her 
vaster  surfaces  the  guilty  impressions  of  man's  heart ; 
at  the  last  day  her  thunders  shall  peal  the  doom  of  the 
wicked,  and  her  fire  devour  them.  In  those  prophecies 
of  the  book  of  Isaiah  which  relate  to  his  own  time 
this  use  is  not  made  of  Nature,  unless  it  be  in  his  very 
earliest  prophecy  in  chap,  ii.,  and  in  his  references  to 
the  earthquake  (v.  25).  To  Isaiah  the  sentences  and 
scourges  of  God  are  political  and  historical,  the  threats 
and  arms  of  Assyria.  He  employs  the  violences  of 
Nature  only  as  metaphors  for  Assyrian  rage  and  force. 
But  he  often  promises  fertility  as  the  effect  of  the  Lord's 
pardon,  and  when  the  prophets  are  writing  about  Nature, 
it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  they  are  to  be  understood 
literally  or  poetically.  But,  at  any  rate,  there  is  much 
larger  use  made  of  physical  catastrophes  and  convul- 
sions in  those  other  prophecies  which  do  not  relate 
to  Isaiah's  own  time,  and  are  now  generally  thought  not 
to  be  his.  Compare  chaps,  xiii.  and  xiv.  2.  The  repre- 
sentation of  the  earth  as  the  fdlow-convid  of  guilty  man, 
sharing  his  curse,  is  very  vivid  in  Isaiah  xxiv. — xxvii. 
In  the  prophecies  relating  to  his  own  time  Isaiah,  of 
course,  identifies  the  troubles  that  afflict  the  land  with 
the  sin  of  the  people,  of  Judah.  But  these  are  due  to 
political  causes — viz.,  the  Assyrian  invasion.  3.  In 
the  Lord's  court  of  judgement  the  prophets  sOriietimes 
employ  Nature  as  a  ivitiiess  against  man,  as,  for  instance, 
the  prophet  Micah  (vi.  i,ff).  Nature  is  full  of  associa- 
tions ;  the  enduring  mountains  have  memories  from  old, 
they  have  b^en  constant  witnesses  of  the  dealing  of 
God  with  His  people.  4.  Or  lastly,  Nature  may  be 
used  as  the  great  assessor  of  the  conscience,  sitting 
to  expound  the  principles  on  which  God  governs  life 
VOL.  I  2 


18  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

This  is  Isaiah's  favourite  use  of  Nature.  He  employs 
her  to  corroborate  his  statement  of  the  Divine  law  and 
illustrate  the  ways  of  God  to  men,  as  in  the  end  of 
chap,  xxviii.,  and  no  doubt  in  the  opening  verse  of  this 
chapter. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    THREE  JERUSALEMS. 
Isaiah  ii. — iv.  (740 — 735  b.c). 

AFTER  the  general  introduction,  in  chap,  i.,  to  the 
prophecies  of  Isaiah,  there  comes  another  portion 
of  the  book,  of  greater  length,  but  nearly  as  distinct  as 
the  first.  It  covers  four  chapters,  the  second  to  the 
sixth,  all  of  them  dating  from  the  same  earliest  period 
of  Isaiah's  ministry,  before  735  B.C.-  They  deal  with 
exactly  the  same  subjects,  but  they  differ  greatly  in 
form.  One  section  (chaps,  ii. — iv.)  consists  of  a 
number  of  short  utterances — evidently  not  all  spoken 
at  the  same  time,  for  they  conflict  with  one  another — a 
series  of  consecutive  prophecies,  that  probably  repre- 
sent the  stages  of  conviction  through  which  Isaiah 
passed  in  his  prophetic  apprenticeship  ;  a  second 
section  (chap,  v.)  is  a  careful  and  artistic  restatement, 
in  parable  and  oration,  of  the  truths  he  has  thus 
attained;  while  a  third  section  (chap,  vi.)  is  narrative, 
probably  written  subsequently  to  the  first  two,  but 
describing  an  inspiration  and  official  call,  which  must 
have  preceded  them  both.  The  more  one  examines 
chaps,  ii. — vi.,  and  finds  that  they  but  express  the  same 
truths  in  different  forms,  the  more  one  is  confirmed  in 
some  such  view  of  them  as  this,  which,  it  is  believed, 
the  following  exposition  will  justify.     Chaps,  v.  and  vi. 


20  THE   BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

are  twin  appendices  to  the  long  summary  in  ii. — iv.  : 
ciiap.  V.  a  public  vindication  and  enforcement  of  the 
results  of  that  summary,  chap.  vi.  a  private  vindica- 
tion to  the  prophet's  heart  of  the  very  same  truths, 
by  a  return  to  the  secret  moment  of  their  original 
inspiration.  We  may  assign  735  B.C.,  just  before  or 
just  after  the  accession  of  Ahaz,  as  the  date  of  the 
latest  of  these  prophecies.  The  following  is  their 
historical  setting. 

For  more  than  half  a  century  the  kingdom  of  Judah, 
under  two  powerful  and  righteous  monarchs,  had  en- 
joyed the  greatest  prosperity.  Uzziah  strengthened 
the  borders,  extended  the  supremacy  and  vastly  in- 
creased the  resources  of  his  little  State,  which,  it  is 
well  to  remember,  was  in  its  own  size  not  larger  than 
three  average  Scottish  counties.  He  won  back  for 
Judah  the  port  of  Elath  on  the  Red  Sea,  built  a  navy, 
and  restored  the  commerce  with  the  far  East,  which 
Solomon  began.  He  overcame,  in  battle  or  by  the 
mere  terror  of  his  name,  the  neighbouring  nations — the 
Philistines  that  dwelt  in  cities,  and  the  wandering  tribes 
of  desert  Arabs.  The  Ammonites  brought  him  gifts. 
With  the  wealth,  which  the  East  by  tribute  or  by 
commerce  poured  into  his  little  principality,  Uzziah 
fortified  his  borders  and  his  capital,  undertook  large 
works  of  husbandry  and  irrigation,  organized  a  power- 
ful standing  army,  and  supplied  it  with  a  siege  artillery 
capable  of  slinging  arrows  and  stones.  His  name 
spread  Jar  abroad,  for  he  was  marvellously  helped  till  he 
was  strong.  His  son  Jotham  (740 — 735  B.C.)  continued 
his  father's  policy  with  nearly  all  his  father's  success. 
He  built  cities  and  castles,  quelled  a  rebelhon  among  his 
tributaries,  and  caused  their  riches  to  flow  faster  still 
into  Jerusalem.     But  while  Jotham  bequeathed  to  his 


ii— iv.]  THE    THREE  JERUSALEMS.  2i 

country  a  sure  defence  and  great  wealth,  and  to  his 
people  a  strong  spirit  and  prestige  among  the  nations, 
he  left  another  bequest,  which  robbed  these  of  their 
value — the  son  who  succeeded  him.  In  735  Jotham 
died  and  Ahaz  became  king.  He  was  very  young,  and 
stepped  to  the  throne  from  the  hareem.  He  brought 
to  the  direction  of  the  government  the  petulant  will 
of  a  spoiled  child,  the  mind  of  an  intriguing  and 
superstitious  woman.  It  was  when  the  national  policy 
felt  the  paralysis  consequent  on  these  that  Isaiah 
published  at  least  the  later  part  of  the  prophecies  now 
marked  off  as  chaps,  ii. — iv,  of  his  book.  My  people, 
he  cries — my  people  !  children  are  their  oppressors,  and 
women  rule  over  them.  O  my  people,  they  which  lead 
thee  cause  thee  to  err,  and  destroy  the  way  of  thy 
paths. 

Isaiah  had  been  born  into  the  flourishing  nation 
while  Uzziah  was  king.  The  great  events  of  that 
monarch's  reign  were  his  education,  the  still  grander 
hopes  they  prompted  the  passion  of  his  virgin  fancy. 
He  must  have  absorbed  as  the  very  temper  of  his  youth 
this  national  consciousness  which  swelled  so  proudly 
in  Judah  under  Uzziah,  But  the  accession  of  such 
a  king  as  Ahaz,  while  it  was  sure  to  let  loose  the 
passions  and  follies  fostered  by  a  period  of  rapid 
increase  in  luxury,  could  not  fail  to  afford  to  Judah's 
enemies  the  long-deferred  opportunity  of  attacking  her. 
It  was  an  hour  both  of  the  manifestation  of  sin  and  of 
the  judgement  of  sin — an  hour  in  which,  while  the 
majesty  of  Judah,  sustained  through  two  great  reigns, 
was  about  to  disappear  in  the  follies  of  a  third,  the 
majesty  of  Judah's  God  should  become  more  conspicuous 
than  ever.  Of  this  Isaiah  had  been  privately  conscious, 
as  we   shall  see,  for  five  years.     In  the  year  that  king 


THE   BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 


Uzzioh  died  (740),  the  young  Jew  saw  the  Lord  sitting 
upon  a  throne,  high  and  lifted  tip.  Startled  into  pro- 
phetic consciousness  by  the  awful  contrast  between  an 
earthly  majesty  that  had  so  long  fascinated  men,  but 
now  sank  into  a  leper's  grave,  and  the  heavenly,  which 
rose  sovereign  and  everlasting  above  it,  Isaiah  had 
gone  on  to  receive  conviction  of  his  people's  sin  and 
certain  punishment.  With  the  accession  of  Ahaz,  five 
years  later,  his  own  political  experience  was  so  far 
developed  as  to  permit  of  his  expressing  in  their  exact 
historical  effects  the  awful  principles  of  which  he 
had  received  foreboding  when  Uzziah  died.  What  we 
find  in  chaps,  ii. — iv.  is  a  record  of  the  struggle  of  his 
mind  towards  this  expression  ;  it  is  the  summary,  as 
we  have  already  said,  of  Isaiah's  apprenticeship. 

The  word  that  Isaiah,  the  son  of  Anioz,  saw  concerning 
Jiidah  and  ferusalem.  We  do  not  know  anything  of 
Isaiah's  family  or  of  the  details  of  his  upbringing.  He 
was  a  m^ember  of  some  family  of  Jerusalem,  and  in 
intimate  relations  with  the  Court.  It  has  been  believed 
that  he  was  of  royal  blood,  but  it  matters  little  whether 
this  be  true  or  not.  A  spirit  so  wise  and  masterful  as 
his  did  not  need  social  rank  to  fit  it  for  that  intimacy 
with  princes  which  has  doubtless  suggested  the  legend 
of  his  royal  descent.  What  does  matter  is  Isaiah's 
citizenship  in  Jerusalem,  for  this  colours  all  his  prophecy. 
More  than  Athens  to  Demosthenes,  Rome  to  Juvenal, 
Florence  to  Dante,  is  Jerusalem  to  Isaiah.  She  is  his 
immediate  and  ultimate  regard,  the  centre  and  return  of 
all  his  thoughts,  the  hinge  of  the  history  of  his  time, 
the  one  thing  worth  preserving  amidst  its  disasters,  the 
summit  of  those  brilliant  hopes  with  which  he  fills  the 
future.  He  has  traced  for  us  the  main  features  of  her 
position  and  some  of  the  lines  of  her  construction,  many 


ii.— iv.]  THE    THREE  JERUSALEMS.  23 

of  the  great  figures  of  her  streets,  the  fashions  of  her 
women,  the  arrival  of  embassies,  the  effect  of  rumours. 
He  has  painted  her  aspect  in  triumph,  in  siege,  in  famine 
and  in  earthquake;  war  fiUing  her  valleys  with  chariots, 
and  again  nature  rolling  tides  of  fruitfulness  up  to  hei" 
gates;  her  moods  of  worship  and  panic  and  profligacy 
— till  we  see  them  all  as  clearly  as  the  shadow  following 
the  sunshine  and  the  breeze  the  breeze  across  the  corn- 
fields of  our  own  summers. 

If  he  takes  wider  observation  of  mankind,  Jerusalem 
is  his  watch-tower.  It  is  for  her  defence  he  battles 
through  fifty  years  of  statesmanship,  and  all  his 
prophecy  may  be  said  to  travail  in  anguish  for  her 
new  birth.  He  was  never  away  from  her  walls,  but 
not  even  the  psalms  of  the  captives  by  the  rivers  of 
Babylon,  with  the  desire  of  exile  upon  them,  exhibit 
more  beauty  and  pathos  than  the  lamentations  which 
Isaiah  poured  upon  Jerusalem's  sufferings  or  the  visions 
in  which  he  described  her  future  solemnity  and  peace. 

It  is  not  with  surprise,  therefore,  that  we  find  the 
first  prophecies  of  Isaiah  directed  upon  his  mother  city: 
The  word  that  Isaiah  the  son  of  Anioz  saw  concerning 
Judah  and  Jerusalem,  There  is  little  about  Judah 
in  these  chapters :  the  country  forms  but  a  fringe  to 
the   capital. 

Before  we  look  into  the  subject  of  the  prophecy, 
however,  a  short  digression  is  necessary  on  the  manner 
in  which  it  is  presented  to  us.  It  is  not  a  reasoned 
composition  or  argument  we  have  here  ;  it  is  a  vision, 
it  is  the  word  which  Isaiah  saw.  The  expression  is 
vague,  often  abused  and  in  need  of  defining.  Vision  is 
not  employed  here  to  express  any  magical  display  before 
the  eyes  of  the  prophet  of  the  very  w^ords  which  he 
was    to   speak  to  the  people,  or  any  communication  to 


24  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

his  thoughts  by  dream  or  ecstasy.  They  are  higher 
quahties  of  "  vision "  which  these  chapters  unfold. 
There  is,  first  of  all,  the  power  of  forming  an  ideal,  of 
seeing  and  describing  a  thing  in  the  fulfilment  of  all 
the  promise  that  is  in  it.  But  these  prophecies  are  much 
more  remarkable  for  two  other  powers  of  inward  vision, 
to  which  we  give  the  names  of  insight  and  intuition 
— insight  into  human  character,  intuition  of  Divine 
principles — clear  knowledge  of  what  man  is  and  how 
God  will  act— 3.  keen  discrimination  of  the  present 
state  of  affairs  in  Judah,  and  unreasoned  conviction 
of  moral  truth  and  the  Divine  will.  The  original 
meaning  of  the  Hebrew  word  saiv,  which  is  used  in  the 
title  to  this  series,  is  to  cleave,  or  split ;  then  to  see 
into,  to  see  through,  to  get  down  beneath  the  surface 
of  things  and  discover  their  real  nature.  And  what 
characterizes  the  bulk  of  these  visions  is  penetrative- 
ness,  the  keenness  of  a  man  who  will  not  be  deceived 
by  an  outward  show  that  he  delights  to  hold  up  to 
our  scorn,  but  who  has  a  conscience  for  the  inner 
worth  of  things  and  for  their  future  consequences.  To 
lay  stress  on  the  moral  meaning  of  the  prophet's  vision 
is  not  to  grudge,  but  to  emphasize  its  inspiration  by 
God.  Of  that  inspiration  Isaiah  was  himself  assured. 
It  was  God's  Spirit  that  enabled  him  to  see  thus  keenly ; 
for  he  saw  things  keenly,  not  only  as  men  count  moral 
keenness,  but  as  God  Himself  sees  them,  in  their  value 
in  His  sight  and  in  their  attractiveness  for  His  love 
and  pity.  In  this  prophecy  there  occurs  a  striking 
expression — the  eyes  of  the  glory  of  God.  It  was  the 
vision  of  the  Almighty  Searcher  and  Judge,  burning 
through  man's  pretence,  with  which  the  prophet  felt 
himself  endowed.  This  then  was  the  second  element  in 
his  vision — to  penetrate  men's  hearts  as  God  Himself 


ii.— iv.1  THE   THREE  JERUSALEMS.  it, 

penetrated  them,  and  constantly,  without  squint  or  bhir, 
to  see  right  from  wrong  in  their  eternal  difference.  And 
the  third  element  is  the  intuition  of  God's  will,  the  per- 
ception of  what  line  of  action  He  will  take.  This  last,  of 
course,  forms  the  distinct  prerogative  of  Hebrew  pro- 
phecy, that  power  of  vision  which  is  its  climax ;  the  moral 
situation  being  clear,  to  see  then  how  God  will  act  upon  it. 
Under  these  three  powers  of  vision  Jerusalem, 
the  prophet's  city,  is  presented  to  us — ^Jerusalem  in 
three  I'ghts,  really  three  Jerusalems.  First,  there  is 
flashed  out  (chap.  ii.  2 — 5)  a  vision  of  the  ideal 
city,  Jerusalem  idealized  and  glorified.  Then  comes 
(ii.  6 — iv.  i)  a  very  realistic  picture,  a  picture  of 
the  actual  Jerusalem.  And  lastly  at  the  close  of  the 
prophecy  (iv.  2 — 6)  we  have  a  vision  of  Jerusalem  as 
she  shall  be  after  God  has  taken  her  in  hand — very 
different  indeed  from  the  ideal  with  which  the  prophet 
began.  Here  are  three  successive  motives  or  phases 
of  prophecy,  which,  as  we  have  said,  in  all  probability 
summarize  the  early  ministry  of  Isaiah,  and  present 
him  to  us  first  as  the  idealist  or  visionary,  second  as 
the  realist  or  critic,  and  tJiird  as  the  prophet  proper  or 
revealer  of  God's  actual  will. 

I.  The  Idealist  (ii.   i — 5). 

All  men  who  have  shown  our  race  how  great  things 
are  possible  have  had  their  inspiration  in  dreaming  01 
the  in. possible.  Reformers,  who  at  death  were  content 
to  have  lived  for  the  moving  forward  but  one  inch  01 
some  of  their  fellow-men,  began  by  believing  them- 
selves able  to  lift  the  whole  world  at  once.  Isaiah 
was  no  exception  to  this  human  fashion.  His  first 
vision  was  that  of  a  Utopia,  and  his  first  belief  that  his 
countrymen  would  immediately  realize  it.     He  lifts  up 


26  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

to  us  a  very  grand  picture  of  a  vast  commonwealth 
centred  in  Jerusalem.  Some  think  he  borrowed  it  from 
an  older  prophet ;  Micah  has  it  also  ;  it  may  have  been 
the  ideal  of  the  age.  But,  at  any  rate,  if  we  are  not  to 
take  verse  5  in  scorn,  Isaiah  accepted  this  as  his  own. 
And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days,  that  the 
mountain  of  the  Lord's  house  shall  be  established  in  the 
top  of  the  mountains,  and  exalted  above  the  hills,  and 
all  nations  shall  flow  unto  it.  '  The  prophet's  own  Jeru- 
salem shall  be  the  light  of  the  world,  the  school  and 
temple  of  the  earth,  the  seat  of  the  judgement  of  the 
Lord,  when  He  shall  reign  over  the  nations,  and  all 
mankind  shall  dwell  in  peace  beneath  Him^  It  is 
a  glorious  destiny,  and  as  its  light  shines  from  the  far- 
off  horizon,  the  latter  days,  in  which  the  prophet  sees 
it,  what  wonder  that  he  is  possessed  and  cries  aloud, 
O  house  of  Jacob,  come  ye,  and  let  us  walk  in  the  light 
of  the  Lord  !  It  seems  to  the  young  prophet's  hopeful 
heart  as  if  at  once  that  ideal  would  be  realized,  as  if 
by  his  own  word  he  could  lift  his  people  to  its 
fulfilment. 

But  that  is  impossible,  and  Isaiah  perceives  so  as 
soon  as  he  turns  from  the  far-off  horizon  to  the  city  at 
his  feet,  as  soon  as  he  leaves  to-morrow  alone  and  deals 
with  to-day.  The  next  verses  of  the  chapter — from 
verse  6  onwards — stand  in  strong  contrast  to  those  which 
have  described  Israel's  ideal.  There  Zion  is  full  of  the 
law  and  Jerusalem  of  the  word  of  the  Lord,  the  one 
religion  flowing  over  from  this  centre  upon  the  v.'orld. 
Here  into  the  actual  Jerusalem  they  have  brought 
all  sorts  of  foreign  worship  and  heathen  prophets;  they 
are  replenished  from  the  East,  and  are  soothsayers  like 
the  Philistines,  and  strike  hands  with  the  children  of 
strangers.       There    all    nations    come    to    worship    at 


ii.— iv.]  THE   THREE  JERUSALEM5.  27 

Jerusalem  ;  here  her  thought  and  faith  are  scattered 
over  the  idolatries  of  all  nations.  The  ideal  Jerusalem 
is  full  of  spiritual  blessings,  the  actual  of  the  spoils  of 
trade.  There  the  swords  are  beat  into  ploughshares 
and  the  spears  into  pruning-hooks  ;  here  are  vast  and 
novel  armaments,  horses  and  chariots.  There  the  Lord 
alone  is  worshipped ;  here  the  city  is  crowded  with 
idols.  The  real  Jerusalem  could  not  possibly  be  more 
different  from  the  ideal,  nor  its  inhabitants  as  they  are 
from  what  their  prophet  had  confidently  called  on 
them  to  be. 

II.  The  Realist  (ii.  6 — iv.   i). 

Therefore  Isaiah's  attitude  and  tone  suddenly  change. 
The  visionary  becomes  a  realist,  the  enthusiast  a  cynic, 
the  seer  of  the  glorious  city  of  God  the  prophet  of 
God's  judgement.  The  recoil  is  absolute  in  style, 
temper  and  thought,  down  to  the  very  figures  of  speech 
which  he  uses.  Before,  Isaiah  had  seen,  as  it  were,  a 
lifting  process  at  work,  Jerusalem  in  the  top  of  the 
moiititains,  and  exalted  above  the  hills.  Now  he  beholds 
nothing  but  depression.  For  the  day  of  the  Lord  of 
hosts  shall  be  upon  every  one  that  is  proud  and  haughty, 
upon  all  that  is  If  ted  up,  and  it  shall  be  brought  low,  and 
the  Lord  alone  shall  be  exalted  in  that  day.  Nothing  in 
the  great  civilization,  which  he  had  formerly  glorified, 
is  worth  preserving.  The  high  towers,  fenced  walls, 
ships  of  Tarshish,  treasures  and  armour  must  all  perish  ; 
even  the  hills  lifted  by  his  imagination  shall  be  bowed 
down,  and  the  Lord  alone  be  exalted  in  that  day. 
This  recoil  reaches  its  extreme  in  the  last  verse  of  the 
chapter.  The  prophet,  who  had  believed  so  much  in 
man  as  to  think  possible  an  immediate  commonwealth 
of  nations,  believes  in  man  now  so  little  that  he  does 


28  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


not  hold  him  worth  preserving :  Cease  ye  from  man, 
whose  breath  is  in  his  nostrils ;  for  wherein  is  he  to  be 
accounted  of? 

Attached  to  this  general  denunciation  are  some 
satiric  descriptions,  in  the  third  chapter,  of  the  anarchy, 
to  which  society  in  Jerusalem  is  fast  being  'reduced 
under  its  childish  and  effeminate  king.  The  scorn  of 
these  passages  is  scathing ;  the  eyes  of  the  glory  of  God 
burn  through  every  rank,  fashion  and  ornament  in  the 
town.  King  and  court  are  not  spared  ;  the  elders  and 
princes  are  rigorously  denounced.  But  by  far  the  most 
striking  effort  of  the  prophet's  boldness  is  his  pre- 
diction of  the  overthrow  of  Jerusalem  itself  (ver.  8). 
What  it  cost  Isaiah  to  utter  and  the  people  to  hear  we 
can  only  partly  measure.  To  his  own  passionate 
patriotism  it  must  have  felt  like  treason,  to  the  blind 
optimism  of  the  popular  religion  it  doubtless  appeared 
the  rankest  heresy — to  aver  that  the  holy  city,  inviolate 
and  almost  unthreatened  since  the  day  David  brought 
to  her  the  ark  of  the  Lord,  and  destined  by  the  voice  of 
her  prophets,  including  Isaiah  himself,  to  be  established 
upon  the  tops  of  the  mountains,  was  now  to  fall  into 
ruin.  But  Isaiah's  conscience  overcomes  his  sense  of 
consistency,  and  he  who  has  just  proclaimed  the  eternal 
glory  of  Jerusalem  is  provoked  by  his  knowledge  of 
her  citizens'  sins  to  recall  his  v/ords  and  intimate  her 
destruction.  It  may  have  been,  that  Isaiah  was  partly 
emboldened  to  so  novel  a  threat,  by  his  knowledge  of 
the  preparations  which  Syria  and  Israel  were  already 
making  for  the  invasion  of  Judah.  The  prospect  of 
Jerusalem,  as  the  centre  of  a  vast  empire  subject  to 
Jehovah,  however  natural  it  was  under  a  successful 
ruler  like  Uzziah,  became,  of  course,  unreal  when  every 
one  of  Uzziah's  and  Jotham's  tributaries  had  risen  in 


ii.— iv.]  THE   THREE  JERUSALEMS.  29 

revolt  against  their  successor,  Ahaz.  But  of  these 
outward  movements  Isaiah  tells  us  nothing.  He  is 
wholly  engrossed  with  Judah's  sin.  It  is  his  growing 
acquaintance  with  the  corruption  of  his  fellow-country- 
men that  has  turned  his  back  on  the  ideal  city  of 
his  opening  ministry,  and  changed  him  into  a  prophet 
of  Jerusalem's  ruin.  Their  tongue  and  their  doings  are 
against  the  Lord,  to  provoke  the  eyes  of  His  glory. 
Judge,  prophet  and  elder,  all  the  upper  ranks  and 
useful  guides  of  the  people,  must  perish.  It  is  a  sign 
of  the  degradation  to  which  society  shall  be  reduced, 
when  Isaiah  with  keen  sarcasm  pictures  the  despairing 
people  choosing  a  certain  man  to  be  their  ruler  because 
he  alone  has  a  coat  to  his  back!  (iii.  6). 

With  increased  scorn  Isaiah  turns  lastly  upon  the 
women  of  Jerusalem  (iii.  16 — iv.  2),  and  here  perhaps 
the  change  which  has  passed  over  him  since  his  opening 
prophecy  is  most  striking.  One  likes  to  think  of  how 
the  citizens  of  Jerusalem  took  this  alteration  in  their 
prophet's  temper.  We  know  how  popular  so  optimist  ^c 
a  prophecy  as  that  of  the  mountain  of  the  Lord's  house 
must  have  been,  and  can  imagine  how  men  and  women 
loved  the  young  face,  bright  with  a  far-off  light,  and 
the  dream  of  an  ideal  that  had  no  quarrel  with  the 
present.  "  But  what  a  change  is  this  that  has  come 
over  him,  who  speaks  not  of  to-morrow,  but  of  to-day, 
who  has  brought  his  gaze  from  those  distant  horizons 
to  our  streets,  who  stares  every  man  in  the  face  (iii.  9), 
and  makes  the  women  feel  that  no  pin  and  trimming,  no 
ring  and  bracelet,  escape  his  notice  1  Our  loved  prophet 
has  become  an  impudent  scorner ! "  Ah,  men  and 
women  of  Jerusalem,  beware  of  those  eyes  !  The  glory 
of  God  is  burning  in  them ;  they  see  you  through 
and  through,  and  they  tell  us  that  all  your  armour  and 


30  THE  BOOK   OF   ISAIAH. 

the  show  of  your  countenance,  and  your  foreign  fashions 
are  as  nothing,  for  there  are  corrupt  hearts  below. 
This  is  your  judgement,  that  instead  of  sweet  spices  there 
shall  be  rottenness,  and  instead  of  a  girdle  a  rope,  and 
instead  oj  well-set  hair  baldness,  and  instead  of  a 
stomacher  a  girding  of  sackcloth,  and  branding  instead  oj 
beauty.  Thy  men  shall  fall  by  the  sword,  and  thy  mighty 
in  the  war.  And  her  gates  shall  lament  and  mourn,  and 
she  shall  be  desolate  and  sit  upon  the  ground  ! 

This  was  the  climax  of  the  prophet's  judgement.  If 
the  salt  have  lost  its  savour,  wherewith  shall  it  be 
salted  ?  It  is  thenceforth  good  for  nothing  but  to  be 
cast  out  and  trodden  under  foot.  If  the  women  are 
corrupt  the  state  is  moribund. 

III.  The  Prophet  of  the  Lord  (iv.  2 — 6). 

Is  there,  then,  no  hope  for  Jerusalem  ?  Yes,  but  not 
where  the  prophet  sought  it  at  first,  in  herself,  and  not 
in  the  way  he  offered  it — by  the  mere  presentation  of 
an  ideal.  There  is  hope,  there  is  more — there  is  certain 
salvation  in  the  Lord,  but  it  only  comes  after  judgement. 
Contrast  that  opening  picture  of  the  new  Jerusalem  with 
this  closing  one,  and  we  shall  find  their  difference  to  lie  in 
two  things.  There  the  city  is  more  prominent  than  the 
Lord,  here  the  Lord  is  more  prominent  than  the  city  ; 
there  no  word  of  judgement,  here  judgement  sternly 
emphasized  as  the  indispensable  way  towards  the 
blessed  future.  A  more  vivid  sense  of  the  Person  of 
Jehovah  Himself,  a  deep  conviction  of  the  necessity  of 
chastisement :  these  are  what  Isaiah  has  gained  during 
his  early  ministry,  without  losing  hope  or  heart  for  the 
future.  The  bliss  shall  come  only  when  the  Lord  shall 
have  washed  away  the  flth  of  the  daughters  of  Zion,  ai^ 
shall  have  purged  the  blood  of  Jerusalem  from  the  midst 


ii.  -iv.]  THE   THREE  JERUSALEMS.  31 

thereof  by  the  spirit  of  judgement  and  the  spirit  of  burning. 
It  is  a  corollary  of  all  this  that  the  participants  of  that 
future  shall  be  many  fewer  than  in  the  first  vision  01 
the  prophet.  The  process  of  judgement  must  weed  men 
out,  and  in  place  of  all  nations  coming  to  Jerusalem,  to 
share  its  peace  and  glory,  the  prophet  can  speak  now 
only  of  Israel — and  only  of  a  remnant  of  Israel. 
The  escaped  of  Israel,  the  left  in  Zion,  and  he  that 
remaineth  in  Jerusalem.  This  is  a  great  change  in 
Isaiah's  ideal,  from  the  supremacy  of  Israel  over  all 
nations  to  the  bare  survival  of  a  remnant  of  his 
people. 

Is  there  not  in  this  threefold  vision  a  parallel  and 
example  for  our  own  civilisation  and  our  thoughts 
about  it  ?  All  work  and  wisdom  begin  in  dreams. 
We  must  see  our  Utopias  before  we  start  to  build  our 
stone  and  lime  cities. 

**It  takes  a  soul 
To  move  a  body ;  it  takes  a  high-souled  maa 
To  move  the  masses  even  to  a  cleaner  stye; 
It  takes  the  ideal  to  blow  an  inch  inside 
The  dust  of  the  actuaU" 

But  the  light  of  our  ideals  dawns  upon  us  only  to 
show  how  poor  by  nature  are  the  mortals  who  are 
called  to  accomplish  them.  The  ideal  rises  still  as 
to  Isaiah  only  to  exhibit  the  poverty  of  the  real. 
When  we  lift  our  eyes  from  the  hills  of  vision, 
and  rest  them  on  our  fellow-men,  hope  and  enthu- 
siasm die  out  of  us.  Isaiah's  disappointment  is 
that  of  every  one  who  brings  down  his  gaze  from 
the  clouds  to  the  streets.  Be  our  ideal  ever  so 
desirable,  be  we  ever  so  persuaded  of  its  facility, 
the    moment    we    attempt    to    apply    it    we   shall    be 


32  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

undeceived.  Society  cannot  be  regenerated  all  at 
once.  There  is  an  expression  which  Isaiah  empha- 
sizes in  his  motive  of  cynicism  :  The  show  of  their 
countenance  doth  witness  against  them.  It  tells  us 
that  when  he  called  his  countrymen  to  turn  to  the 
light  he  lifted  upon  them  he  saw  nothing  but  the 
exhibition  of  their  sin  made  plain.  When  we  bring 
light  to  a  cavern  whose  inhabitants  have  lost  their 
eyes  by  the  darkness,  the  light  does  not  make  them 
see  ;  we  have  to  give  them  eyes  again.  Even  so  no 
vision  or  theory  of  a  perfect  state  —  the  mistake 
which  all  young  reformers  make —  can  regenerate 
society.  It  will  only  reveal  social  corruption,  and 
sicken  the  heart  of  the  reformer  himself.  For  the 
possession  of  a  great  ideal  does  not  mean,  as  so 
many  fondly  imagine,  work  accomplished ;  it  means 
work  revealed — work  revealed  so  vast,  often  so 
impossible,  that  faith  and  hope  die  down,  and 
the  enthusiast  of  yesterday  becomes  the  cynic  of 
to-morrow.  Cease  ye  from  man,  whose  breath  is  in 
his  nostrils,  for  ivhcrein  is  he  to  be  accounted?  In 
this  despair,  through  which  every  worker  for  God 
and  man  must  pass,  many  a  warm  heart  has  grown 
cold,  many  an  intellect  become  paralyzed.  There  is 
but  one  way  of  escape,  and  that  is  Isaiah's.  It  is 
to  believe  in  God  Himself  ;  it  is  to  believe  that  He 
is  at  work,  that  His  purposes  to  man  are  saving  pur- 
poses, and  that  with  Him  there  is  an  inexhaustible 
source  of  mercy  and  virtue.  So  from  the  blackest 
pessimism  shall  arise  new  hope  and  faith,  as  from 
beneath  Isaiah's  darkest  verses  that  glorious  passage 
suddenly  bursts  like  uncontrollable  spring  from  the 
very  feet  of  winter.  For  that  day  shall  the  spring  of 
the  Lord  be  beautifid  and  glorious,  and  the  fruit  of 


ii.-iv.]  ^THE   THREE  JERUSALEMS,  33 

the  land  shall  be  excellent  and  comely  for  them  that 
are  escaped  of  Israel.  This  is  all  it  is  possible  to 
say.  There  must  be  a  future  for  man,  because  God 
loves  him,  and  God  reigns.  That  future  can  be 
reached  only  through  judgement,  because  God  is 
righteous. 

To  put  it  another  way :  All  of  us  who  live  to 
work  for  our  fellow-men  or  who  hope  to  lift  them 
higher  by  our  word  begin  with  our  own  visions  of 
a  great  future.  These  visions,  though  our  youth 
lends  to  them  an  original  generosity  and  enthu- 
siasm, are,  like  Isaiah's,  largely  borrowed.  The 
progressive  instincts  of  the  age  into  which  we  are 
born  and  the  mellow  skies  of  prosperity  combine  with 
our  own  ardour  to  make  our  ideal  one  of  splendour. 
Persuaded  of  its  facility,  we  turn  to  real  life  to  apply 
it.  A  few  years  pass.  We  not  only  find  mankind 
too  stubborn  to  be  forced  into  our  moulds,  but  we 
gradually  become  aware  of  Another  Moulder  at  work 
upon  our  subject,  and  we  stand  aside  in  awe  to  watch 
His  operations.  Human  desires  and  national  ideals 
are  not  always  fulfilled  ;  philosophic  theories  are  dis- 
credited by  the  evolution  of  fact.  Uzziah  does  not 
reign  for  ever;  the  sceptre  falls  to  Ahaz  :  pro- 
gress is  checked,  and  the  summer  of  prosperity  draws 
to  an  end.  Under  duller  skies  ungilded  judgement 
comes  to  view,  cruel  and  inexorable,  crushing  even 
the  peaks  on  which  we  built  our  future,  yet  purifying 
men  and  giving  earnest  of  a  better  future,  too.  And 
so  hfe,  that  mocked  the  control  of  our  puny  fingers, 
bends  groaning  to  the  weight  of  an  Almighty  Hand. 
God  also,  we  perceive  as  we  face  facts  honestly,  has 
His  ideal  for  men  ;  and  though  He  works  so  slowly 
towards  His  end  that   our  restless  eyes   are   too   im- 

VOL.  I.  3 


34  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

patient  to  follow  His  order,  He  yet  reveals  all  that 
shall  be  to  the  humbled  heart  and  the  soul  emptied 
of  its  own  visions.  Awed  and  chastened,  we  look 
back  from  His  Presence  to  our  old  ideals.  We  are 
still  able  to  recognize  their  grandeur  and  generous 
hope  for  men.  But  we  see  now  how  utterly  uncon- 
nected they  are  with  the  present — castles  in  the  air, 
with  no  ladders  to  them  from  the  earth.  And  even 
if  they  were  accessible,  still  to  our  eyes,  purged  by 
gazing  on  God's  own  ways,  they  would  no  more 
appear  desirable.  Look  back  on  Isaiah's  early  ideal 
from  the  light  of  his  second  vision  of  the  future. 
For  all  its  grandeur,  that  picture  of  Jerusalem  is  not 
wholly  attractive.  Is  there  not  much  national  arro- 
gance in  it  ?  Is  it  not  just  the  imperfectly  idealized 
reflection  of  an  age  of  material  prosperity  such  as 
that  of  Uzziah's  was  ?  Pride  is  in  it,  a  false  optimism, 
the  highest  good  to  be  reached  without  moral  conflict. 
But  here  is  the  language  of  pity,  rescue  with  difficulty, 
rest  only  after  sore  struggle  and  stripping,  salvation  by 
the  bare  arm  of  God.  So  do  our  imaginations  for  our 
own  future  or  for  that  of  the  race  always  contrast  with 
what  He  Himself  has  in  store  for  us,  promised  freely 
out  of  His  great  grace  to  our  unworthy  hearts,  yet 
granted  in  the  end  only  to  those  who  pass  towards  it 
through  discipline,  tribulation  and  fire. 

This,  then,  was  Isaiah's  apprenticeship,  and  its  net 
result  was  to  leave  him  with  the  remnant  for  his  ideal : 
the  remnant  and  Jerusalem  secured  as  its  rallying- 
point. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  VINEYARD  OF  THE  LORD,  OR  TRUE  PATRIOTISM 
THE  CONSCIENCE  OF  OUR  COUNTRY'S  SINS. 

Isaiah  v.  ;  ix.  8 — x.  4  (735  B.C.). 

THE  prophecy  contained  in  these  chapters  belongs^ 
as  we  have  seen,  to  the  same  early  period  of 
Isaiah's  career  as  chapters  ii. — iv.,  about  the  time 
when  Ahaz  ascended  the  throne  after  the  long  and 
successful  reigns  of  his  father  and  grandfather,  when 
the  kingdom  of  Judah  seemed  girt  with  strength  and 
filled  with  wealth,  but  the  men  were  corrupt  and 
the  women  careless,  and  the  earnest  of  approaching 
judgement  was  already  given  in  the  incapacity  of  the 
weak  and  woman-ridden  king.  Yet  although  this  new 
prophecy  issues  from  the  same  circumstances  as  its  pre- 
decessors, it  implies  these  circumstances  a  little  more, 
developed.  The  same  social  evils  are  treated,  but  by  a 
hand  with  a  firmer  grasp  of  them.  The  same  principles 
are  emphasized  —  the  righteousness  of  Jehovah  and 
His  activity  in  judgement — but  the  form  of  judgement 
of  which  Isaiah  had  spoken  before  in  general  terms 
looms  nearer,  and  before  the  end  of  the  prophecy  we 
get  a  view  at  close  quarters  of  the  Assyrian  ranks. 

Besides,  opposition  has  arisen  to  the  prophet's  teach- 
ing. We  saw  that  the  obscurities  and  inconsistencies  of 
chapters  ii. — iv.  are  due  to  the  fact  that  that  prophecy 


36  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

represents  several  stages  of  experience  through  which 
Isaiah  passed  before  he  gained  his  final  convictions. 
But  his  countrymen,  it  appears,  have  now  had  time  to 
turn  on  these  convictions  and  call  them  in  question  :  it 
is  necessary  for  Isaiah  to  vindicate  them.  The  differ- 
ence, then,  between  these  two  sets  of  prophecies,  dealing 
with  the  same  things,  is  that  in  the  former  (chapters 
ii. — iv.),  we  have  the  obscure  and  tortuous  path  of  a 
conviction  struggling  to  light  in  ihe  prophet's  own 
experience ;  here,  in  chapter  v.,  we  have  its  careful 
array  in  the  light  and  before  the  people. 

The  point  of  Isaiah's  teaching  against  which  opposi- 
tion was  directed  was  of  course  its  main  point,  that  God 
was  about  to  abandon  Judah.  This  must  have  appeared 
to  the  popular  religion  of  the  day  as  the  rankest  heresy. 
To  tlie  Jews  the  honour  of  Jehovah  was  bound  up  with 
the  inviolability  of  Jerusalem  and  the  prosperity  of 
Judah.  But  Isaiah  knew  Jehovah  to  be  infinitely  more 
concerned  for  the  purity  of  His  people  than  for 
their  prosperity.  He  had  seen  the  Lord  exalted  m 
righteousness  above  those  national  and  earthly  interests, 
with  which  vulgar  men  exclusively  identified  His  will. 
Did  the  people  appeal  to  the  long  time  Jehovah  had 
graciously  led  them  for  proof  that  He  would  not 
abandon  them  now?  To  Isaiah  that  gracious  leading 
was  but  for  righteousness'  sake,  and  that  God  might 
make  His  own  a  holy  people.  Their  history,  so  full 
of  the  favours  of  the  Almighty,  did  not  teach  Isaiah, 
as  it  did  the  common  prophets  of  his  time,  the 
lesson  of  Israel's  political  security,  but  the  far  different 
one  of  their  religious  responsibility.  To  him  it  only 
meant  what  Amos  had  already  put  in  those  start- 
ting  words,  YoH  only  have  I  known  of  all  the  families 
of  the  earth :  therefore  I  will  visit  upon  you  all  your 


V. ;  ix.  8-x.  4-]     THE   VINEYARD  OF  THE  LORD.  37 

iniquities.  Now  Isaiah  delivered  this  doctrine  at  a  time 
when  it  brought  him  the  hostihty  of  men's  passions 
as  well  as  of  their  opinions.  Judah  was  arming  for 
war.  Syria  and  Ephraim  were  marching  upon  her. 
To  threaten  his  country  with  ruin  in  such  an  hour 
was  to  run  the  risk  of  suffering  from  popular  fury  as  a 
traitor  as  well  as  from  priestly  prejudice  as  a  heretic. 
The  strain  of  the  moment  is  felt  in  the  strenuousness 
of  the  prophecy.  Chapter  v.,  with  its  appendix, 
exhibits  more  grasp  and  method  than  its  predecessors. 
Its  literary  form  is  finished,  its  feeling  clear.  There  is 
a  tenderness  in  the  beginning  of  it,  an  inexorableness  in 
the  end  and  an  eagerness  all  through,  which  stamp  the 
chapter  as  Isaiah's  final  appeal  to  his  countrymen  at 
this  period  of  his  career. 

The  chapter  is  a  noble  piece  of  patriotism — one  of  the 
noblest  of  a  race  who,  although  for  the  greater  part  of 
their  history  without  a  fatherland,  have  contributed 
more  brilliantly  than  perhaps  any  other  to  the  literature 
of  patriotism,  and  that  simply  because,  as  Isaiah  here 
illustrates,  patriotism  was  to  their  prophets  identical  with 
religious  privilege  and  responsibility.  Isaiah  carries  this 
to  its  bitter  end.  Other  patriots  have  wept  to  sing  their 
country's  woes ;  Isaiah's  burden  is  his  people's  guilt. 
To  others  an  invasion  of  their  fatherland  by  its  enemies 
has  been  the  motive  to  rouse  by  song  or  speech  their 
countrymen  to  repel  it.  Isaiah  also  hears  the  tramp  of 
ihe  invader;  but  to  him  is  permitted  no  ardour  of 
defence,  and  his  message  to  his  countrymen  is  that  they 
must  succumb,  for  the  invasion  is  irresistible  and  of  the 
very  judgement  of  God.  How  much  it  cost  the  prophet 
to  deliver  such  a  message  we  may  see  from  those  few 
verses  of  it  in  which  his  heart  is  not  altogether  silenced 
by  his  conscience.     The  sweet  description  of  Judah  as 


38  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

a  vineyard,  and  the  touching  accents  that  break  through 
the  roll  of  denunciation  with  such  phrases  as  My 
people  are  gone  away  into  captivity  unawares,  tell  us  how 
the  prophet's  love  of  country  is  struggling  with  his  duty 
to  a  righteous  God.  The  course  of  feeling  throughout 
the  prophecy  is  very  striking.  The  tenderness  of 
the  opening  lyric  seems  ready  to  flow  into  gentle 
pleading  with  the  whole  people.  But  as  the  prophet 
turns  to  particular  classes  and  their  sins  his  mood 
changes  to  indignation,  the  voice  settles  down  to  judge- 
ment ;  till  when  it  issues  upon  that  clear  statement 
of  the  coming  of  the  Northern  hosts  every  trace  of 
emotion  has  left  it,  and  the  sentences  ring  out  as 
unfaltering  as  the  tramp  of  the  armies  they  describe. 

I.  The  Parable  of  the  Vineyard  (v.   i — 7). 

Isaiah  adopts  the  resource  of  every  misunderstood  and 
unpopular  teacher,  and  seeks  to  turn  the  flank  of  his 
people's  prejudices  by  an  attack  in  parable  on  their 
sympathies.  Did  they  stubbornly  believe  it  impossible 
for  God  to  abandon  a  State  He  had  so  long  and  so 
carefully  fostered  ?  Let  them  judge  from  an  analogous 
case  in  which  they  were  all  experts.  In  a  picture  of 
great  beauty  Isaiah  describes  a  vineyard  upon  one  of 
the  sunny  promontories  visible  from  Jerusalem.  Every 
care  had  been  given  it  of  which  an  experienced  vine- 
dresser could  think,  but  it  brought  forth  only  wild 
grapes.  The  vine-dresser  himself  is  introduced,  and 
appeals  to  the  men  of  Judah  and  Jerusalem  to  judge 
between  him  and  his  vineyard.  He  gets  their  assent 
that  all  had  been  done  which  could  be  done,  and 
fortified  with  that  resolves  to  abandon  the  vineyard. 
/  will  lay  it  ivaste ;  it  shall  not  be  pruned  nor  digged, 
but  there  shall  come  up, briers  and  thorns.      Then  the 


v.;  IX.  8-x.  4.]   THE   VINEYARD  OF  THE  LORD.  39 

stratagem  comes  out,  the  speaker  drops  the  tones  of  a 
human  cultivator,  and  in  the  omnipotence  of  the  Lord 
of  heaven  he  is  heard  to  say,  /  ivill  also  command  the 
clouds  that  they  ram  no  rain  upon  it.  This  diversion 
upon  their  sympathies  having  succeeded,  the  prophet 
scarcely  needs  to  charge  the  people's  prejudices  in  face. 
His  point  has  been  evidently  carried.  For  the  vineyard 
of  Jehovah  of  hosts  is  the  house  of  Israel,  and  the  men  of 
Judah  his  pleasant  plant ;  and  He  looked  for  judgement,  hut 
behold  oppression,  for  righteousness,  but  behold  a  cry. 

The  lesson  enforced  by  Isaiah  is  just  this,  that  in  a 
people's  civilization  there  lie  the  deepest  responsibilities, 
for  that  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  their  cultivation 
by  God  ;  and  the  question  for  a  people  is  not  how  secure 
does  this  render  them,  nor  what  does  it  count  for  glory, 
but  how  far  is  it  rising  towards  the  intentions  of  its 
Author?  Does  it  produce  those  fruits  of  righteousness 
for  which  alone  God  cares  to  set  apart  and  cultivate 
the  peoples  ?  On  this  depends  the  question  whether 
the  civilization  is  secure,  as  well  as  the  right  of  the 
people  to  enjoy  and  feel  proud  of  it.  There  cannot 
be  true  patriotism  without  sensitiveness  to  this,  for 
however  rich  be  the  elements  that  compose  the  patriot's 
temper,  as  piety  towards  the  past,  ardour  of  service  for 
the  present,  love  of  liberty,  delight  in  natural  beauty 
and  gratitude  for  Divine  favour,  so  rich  a  temper  will 
grow  rancid  without  the  salt  of  conscience ;  and  the 
richer  the  temper  is,  the  greater  must  be  the  proportion 
of  that  salt.  All  prophets  and  poets  of  patriotism  have 
been  moralists  and  satirists  as  well.  From  Demosthenes 
to  Tourgenieff,  from  Dante  to  Mazzini,  from  Milton  to 
Russell  Lowell,  from  Burns  to  Heine,  one  cannot  recall 
any  great  patriot  who  has  not  known  how  to  use  the 
scourge  as  well  as   the  trumpet.     Many  opportunities 


40  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

will  present  themselves  to  us  of  illustrating  Isaiah's 
orations  by  the  letters  and  speeches  of  Cromwell,  who 
of  moderns  most  resembles  the  statesman-prophet  of 
Judah  ;  but  nowhere  does  the  resemblance  become  so 
close  as  when  we  lay  a  prophecy  like  this  of  Jehovah's 
vineyard  by  the  side  of  the  speeches  in  which  the  Lord 
Protector  exhorted  the  Commons  of  England,  although 
it  was  the  hour  of  his  and  their  triumph,  to  address 
themselves  to  their  sins. 

So,  then,  the  patriotism  of  all  great  men  has  carried 
a  conscience  for  their  country's  sins.  But  while  this 
is  always  more  or  less  a  burden  to  the  true  patriot, 
there  are  certain  periods  in  which  his  care  for  his 
country  ought  to  be  this  predominantly,  and  need  be 
little  else.  In  a  period  like  our  own,  for  instance, 
of  political  security  and  fashionable  religion,  what  need 
is  there  in  patriotic  displays  of  any  other  kind  ?  but 
how  much  for  patriotism  of  this  kind — of  men  who  will 
uncover  the  secret  sins,  however  loathsome,  and  declare 
the  hypocrisies,  however  powerful,  of  the  social  life  of 
the  people!  These  are  the  patriots  we  need  in  times 
of  peace  ;  and  as  it  is  more  difficult  to  rouse  a  torpid 
people  to  their  sins  than  to  lead  a  roused  one  against 
their  enemies,  and  harder  to  face  a  whole  people  with 
the  support  only  of  conscience  than  to  defy  many 
nations  if  you  but  have  your  own  at  your  back,  so 
these  patriots  of  peace  are  more  to  be  honoured  than 
those  of  war.  But  there  is  one  kind  of  patriotism 
more  arduous  and  honourable  still.  It  is  that  which 
Isaiah  displays  here,  who  cannot  add  to  his  conscience 
hope  or  even  pity,  who  must  hail  his  country's  enemies 
for  his  country's  good,  and  recite  the  long  roll  of  God's 
favours  to  his  nation  only  to  emphasize  the  justice  of 
His  abandonment  of  them. 


v.;  ix.  8— X.  4.]  THE   VINEYARD  OF  THE  LORD.  41 

II.   The  Wild  Grapes  of  Judah  (v.  8 — 24). 

The  wild  grapes  which  Isaiah  saw  in  the  vineyard  of 
the  Lord  he  catalogues  in  a  series  of  Woes  (vv.  8 — 24), 
fruits  all  of  them  of  love  of  money  and  love  of  wine. 
They  are  abuse  of  the  soil  (8 — 10,  17*),  a  gidd}' 
luxury  which  has  taken  to  drink  (ii  — 16),  a  moral 
blindness  and  headlong  audacity  of  sin  which  habitual 
avarice  and  "drunkenness  soon  develop  (18 — 21), 
and,  again,  a  greed  of  drink  and  money  —  men's 
perversion  of  their  strength  to  wine,  and  of  their 
opportunities  of  justice  to  the  taking  of  bribes  (22 — 24). 
These  are  the  features  of  corrupt  civilization  not  only 
in  Judah,  and  the  voice  that  deplores  them  cannot 
speak  without  rousing  others  very  clamant  to  the 
modern  conscience.  It  is  with  remarkable  per- 
sistence that  in  every  civilization  the  two  main 
passions  of  the  human  heart,  love  of  wealth  and  love 
of  pleasure,  the  instinct  to  gather  and  the  instinct 
to  squander,  have  sought  precisely  these  two  forms 
denounced  by  Isaiah  in  which  to  work  their  social 
havoc — appropriation  of  the  soil  and  indulgence  in 
strong  drink.  Every  civilized  community  develops 
sooner  or  later  its  land-question  and  its  liquor-ques- 
tion. "  Questions  "  they  are  called  by  the  superficial 
opinion  that 'all  difficulties  may  be  overcome  by  the 
cleverness  of  men ;  yet  problems  through  which  there 
cries  for  remedy  so  vast  a  proportion  of  our  poverty, 
crime  and  madness,  are  something  worse  than  "  ques- 
tions." They  are  huge  sins,  and  require  not  merely 
the  statesman's  wit,  but  all  the  penitence  and  zeal  of 

*  Ewald  happily  suggests  that  verse  17  has  dropped  out  of,  and 
should  be  restored  to,  its  proper  position  at  the  end  of  the  first  "  woe," 
where  it  contributes  to  the  development  of  the  meaning  far  more 
than  from  where  it  stands  in  the  text. 


42  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

H'hich  a  nation's  conscience  is  capable.  It  is  in  this 
that  the  force  of  Isaiah's  treatment  lies.  We  feel  he  is 
not  facing  questions  of  State,  but  sins  of  men.  He  has 
nothing  to  tell  us  of  what  he  considers  the  best  system 
of  land  tenure,  but  he  enforces  the  principle  that  in 
the  ease  with  which  land  may  be  absorbed  by  one 
person  the  natural  covetousness  of  the  human  heart 
has  a  terrible  opportunity  for  working  ruin  upon 
society.  Woe  xinto  them  that  join  house  to  house,  tlint 
lay  field  to  field,  till  there  be  no  room,  and  ye  be  made 
to  divell  alone  in  the  midst  of  the  land.  We  know  from 
Micah  that  the  actual  process  which  Isaiah  condemns 
was  carried  out  with  the  most  cruel  evictions  and  dis- 
inheritances. Isaiah  does  not  touch  on  its  methods, 
but  exposes  its  effects  on  the  country — depopulation 
and  barrenness, — and  emphasizes  its  religious  signifi- 
cance. Of  a  truth  many  houses  shall  be  desolate,  even 
great  and  fair,  without  an  inhabitant.  For  ten  acres  of 
vineyard  shall  yield  one  bath,  and  a  homer  of  seed  shall 
yield  but  an  ephah.  .  .  .  Then  shall  lambs  feed  as  in 
their  pasture,  and  strangers  shall  devour  the  ruins  of 
the  fat  ones — i.e.,  of  the  luxurious  landowners  (9,  lO, 
17.  See  note  on  previous  page).  And  in  one  of  those 
elliptic  statements  by  which  he  often  startles  us  with 
the  sudden  sense  that  God  Himself  is  acquainted  with 
all  our  affairs,  and  takes  His  own  interest  in  them, 
Isaiah  adds,  "  All  this  was  whispered  to  me  by  Jehovah  : 
In  mine  ears — the  Lord  of  hosts  "  (ver.  9). 

During  recent  agitations  in  our  own  country  one  has 
often  seen  the  "  land  laws  of  the  Bible  "  held  forth  by 
some  thoughtless  demagogue  as  models  for  land 
tenure  among  ourselves ;  as  if  a  system  which  worked 
well  with  a  small  tribe  in  a  land  they  had  all  entered 
on  equal  footing,  and  where  there  was  no  opportunity 


v.;  ix.  8-x.  4.]  THE   VINEYARD  OF  THE  LORD.  43 

for  the  industry  of  the  people  except  in  pasture 
and  tillage,  could  possibly  be  applicable  to  a  vastly 
larger  and  more  complex  population,  with  different 
traditions  and  very  different  social  circumstances, 
Isaiah  says  nothing  about  the  peculiar  land  laws 
of  his  people.  He  lays  down  principles,  and  these 
are  principles  valid  in  every  civilization.  God  has 
made  the  land,  not  to  feed  the  pride  of  the  few,  but 
the  natural  hunger  of  the  many,  and  it  is  His  will  that 
the  most  be  got  out  of  a  country's  soil  for  the  people 
of  the  country.  Whatever  be  the  system  of  land- 
tenure — and  while  all  are  more  or  less  liable  to  abuse, 
it  is  the  duty  of  a  people  to  agitate  for  that  which  will 
be  least  liable— if  it  is  taken  advantage  of  by  indi- 
viduals to  satisfy  their  own  cupidity,  then  God  will 
take  account  of  them.  There  is  a  responsibility  which 
the  State  cannot  enforce,  and  the  neglect  of  which 
cannot  be  punished  by  any  earthly  law,  but  all  the  more 
will  God  see  to  it.  A  nation's  treatment  of  their  land 
is  not  always  prominent  as  a  question  which  demands 
the  attention  of  public  reformers  ;  but  it  ceaselessly 
has  interest  for  God,  who  ever  holds  individuals  to 
answer  for  it.  The  land-question  is  ultimately  a 
religious  question.  For  the  management  of  their  land 
the  whole  nation  is  responsible  to  God,  but  especially 
those  who  own  or  manage  estates.  This  is  a  sacred 
office.  When  one  not  only  remembers  the  nature  of 
land — how  it  is  an  element  of  life,  so  that  if  a  man  abuse 
the  soil  it  is  as  if  he  poisoned  the  air  or  darkened  the 
heavens — but  appreciates  also  the  multitude  of  personal 
relations  which  the  landowner  or  factor  holds  in  his 
hand — the  peace  of  homes,  the  continuity  of  local 
traditions,  the  physical  health,  the  social  fearlessness  and 
frankness,  and  the  thousand  delicate  associations  which 


44  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 


their  habitations  entwine  about  the  hearts  of  men — one 
feels  that  to  all  who  possess  or  manage  land  is  granted 
an  opportunity  of  patriotism  and  piety  open  to  few,  a 
ministry  less  honourable  and  sacred  than  none  other 
committed  by  God  to  man  for  his  fellow-men. 

After  the  land-sin  Isaiah  hurls  his  second  Woe  upon 
the  drink-sin,  and  it  is  a  heavier  woe  than  the  first. 
With  fatal  persistence  the  luxury  of  every  civilization 
has  taken  to  drink ;  and  of  all  the  indictments  brought 
by  moralists  against  nations,  that  which  they  reserve 
for  drunkenness  is,  as  here,  the  most  heavily  weighted. 
The  crusade  against  drink  is  not  the  novel  thing  that 
many  imagine  who  observe  only  its  late  revival  among 
ourselves.  In  ancient  times  there  was  scarcely  a  State 
in  which  prohibitive  legislation  of  the  most  stringent 
kind  was  not  attempted,  and  generally  carried  out  with 
a  thoroughness  more  possible  under  despots  than 
where,  as  with  us,  the  slow  consent  of  public  opinion 
is  necessary.  A  horror  of  strong  drink  has  in  every 
age  possessed  those  who  from  their  position  as 
magistrates  or  prophets  have  been  able  to  follow  for 
any  distance  the  drifts  of  social  life.  Isaiah  exposes  as 
powerfully  as  ever  any  of  them  did  in  what  the  peculiar 
fatality  of  drinking  lies.  Wine  is  a  mocker  by  nothing 
more  than  by  the  moral  incredulity  which  it  produces, 
enabling  men  to  hide  from  themselves  the  spiritual  and 
material  effects  of  over-indulgence  in  it.  No  one  who 
has  had  to  do  with  persons  slowly  falling  from  moderate 
to  immoderate  drinking  can  mistake  Isaiah's  meaning 
when  he  says.  They  regard  not  the  work  of  the  Lord  ; 
neither  have  they  considered  the  operation  of  His  hands. 
Nothing  kills  the  conscience  like  steady  drinking  to 
a  little  excess ;  and  religion,  even  while  the  conscience 
is  alive,  acts  on  it  only  as  an  opiate.     It  is  not,  how- 


v.;  ix.  8— X.  4-1  THE   VINEYARD   OE  THE  LORD.  45 

ever,  with  the  symptoms  of  drink  in  individuals  so 
much  as  with  its  aggregate  eiTects  on  the  nation  that 
Isaiah  is  concerned.  So  prevalent  is  excessive  drink- 
ing, so  entwined  with  the  social  customs  of  the  country 
and  many  powerful  interests,  that  it  is  extremely 
difficult  to  rouse  public  opinion  to  its  effects.  And  so 
they  go  into  caplivUy  for  lack  of  knoivlcdge.  Temperance 
reformers  are  often  blamed  for  the  strength  of  their  lan- 
guage, but  they  may  shelter  themselves  behind  Isaiah. 
As  he  pictures  it,  the  national  destruction  caused  by 
drink  is  complete.  It  is  nothing  less  than  the  people's 
captivi'tyj  and  we  know  what  that  meant  to  an  Israelite. 
It  affects  all  classes  :  Their  honourable  men  are  famished^ 
and  their  innUiinde  parched  with  thirst.  .  .  .  The  mean 
man  is  bowed  doivn,  and  the  great  man  is  humbled.  But 
the  want  and  ruin  of  this  earth  are  not  enough  to 
describe  it.  The  appetite  of  hell  itself  has  to  be 
enlarged  to  suffice  for  the  consumption  of  the  spoils  of 
strong  drink.  Therefore  hell  hath  enlarged  her  desire 
and  opened  her  month  without  measure ;  and  their  glory, 
and  their  nndtitude,  and  their  pomp,  and  he  that  rejoiceth 
among  them,  descend  into  it.  Tlie  very  appetite  of  hell 
has*  to  be  enlarged  !  Does  it  not  truly  seem  as  if  the 
wild  and  wanton  waste  of  drink  were  preventable, 
as  if  it  were  not,  as  many  are  ready  to  sneer,  the 
inevitable  evil  of  men's  hearts  choosing  this  form  of 
issue,  but  a  superfluous  audacity  of  sin,  which  the 
devil  himself  did  not  desire  or  tempt  men  to  ?  It  is 
this  feeling  of  the  infernal  gratuitousness  of  most  of 
the  drink-evil — the  conviction  that  here  hell  would 
be  quiet  if  only  she  were  not  stirred  up  by  the 
extraordinarily  wanton  provocatives  that  society  and 
the  State  offer  to  excessive  drinking — which  compels 
temperance    reformers    at  the   present  day   to   isolate 


4b  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

drunkenness  and  make  it  the  object  of  a  special  crusade. 
Isaiah's  strong  figure  has  lost  none  of  its  strength 
to-day.  When  our  judges  tell  us  from  the  bench  that 
nine-tenths  of  pauperism  and  crime  are  caused  by 
drink,  and  our  physicians  that  if  only  irregular  tippling 
were  abolished  half  the  current  sickness  of  the  land  would 
cease,  and  our  statesmen  that  the  ravages  of  strong 
drink  are  equal  to  those  of  the  historical  scourges  of  war, 
famine  and  pestilence  combined,  surely  to  swallow  such 
a  glut  of  spoil  the  appetite  of  hell  must  have  been  still 
more  enlarged,  and  the  month  of  hell  made  yet  wider. 

The  next  three  Woes  are  upon  different  aggravations 
of  that  moral  perversity  which  the  prophet  has  already 
traced  to  strong  drink.  In  the  first  of  these  it  is  better 
to  read,  draw  punishyncnt  near  with  cords  of  vanity,  than 
draw  tjiiquity.  Then  we  have  a  striking  antithesis — 
the  drunkards  mocking  Isaiah  over  their  cups  with  the 
challenge,  as  if  it  would  not  be  taken  up.  Let  fehovah 
make  speed,  and  hasten  His  work  of  judgement,  that  we  may 
see  it,  while  all  the  time  they  themselves  were  dragging 
that  judgement  near,  as  with  cart-ropes,  by  their  per- 
sistent diligence  in  evil.  This  figure  of  sinners  jeering 
at  the  approach  of  a  calamity  while  they  actually  wear  the 
harness  of  its  carriage  is  very  striking.  But  the  Jews 
are  not  only  unconscious  of  judgement,  they  are  confused 
as  to  the  very  principles  of  morality  :  Who  call  evil  good, 
and  good  evil;  that  put  darkness  for  light,  and  light  for 
darkness  ;  that  put  bitter  for  sweet,  and  sweet  for  bitter  ! 

In  his  fifth  Woe  the  prophet  attacks  a  disposition 
to  which  his  scorn  gives  no  peace  throughout  his  minis- 
try. If  these  sensualists  had  only  confined  themselves 
to  their  sensuality  they  might  have  been  left  alone ; 
but  with  that  intellectual  bravado  which  is  equally 
born  with  "  Dutch  courage"  of  drink,  they  interfered  in 


v.;  ix.  8-x.  4.]  THE   VINEYARD  OF  THE  LORD.  47 

the  conduct  of  the  State,  and  prepared  arrogant  policies 
of  alliance  and  war  that  were  the  distress  of  the  sober- 
minded  prophet  all  his  days.  Woe  unto  them  that  are 
wise  in  their  oivn  eyes  and  prudent  in  their  own  sight. 

In  his  last  Woe  Isaiah  returns  to  the  drinking  habits 
of  the  upper  classes,  from  which  it  would  appear  that 
among  the  judges  even  of  Judah  there  were  "six- 
bottle  men."  They  sustained  their  extravagance  by 
subsidies,  which  we  trust  were  unknown  to  the  mighty 
men  of  wine  who  once  filled  the  seats  of  justice  in  our 
own  country.  They  justify  the  wicked  for  a  bribe,  and 
take  away  the  righteousness  of  the  righteous  from  htm. 
All  these  sinners,  dead  through  their  rejection  of  the 
law  of  Jehovah  of  hosts  and  the  word  of  the  Holy 
One  of  Israel,  shall  be  like  to  the  stubble,  fit  only 
for  burning,  and  their  blossom  as  the  dust  of  the 
rotten   tree. 

III.  The  Anger  of  the  Lord  (v.  25  ;  ix.  8 — x.  4 ; 
V.   26 — 30). 

This  indictment  of  the  various  sins  of  the  people 
occupies  the  whole  of  the  second  part  of  the 
oration.  But  a  third  part  is  now  added,  in  which 
the  prophet  catalogues  the  judgements  of  the  Lord 
upon  them,  each  of  these  closing  with  the  weird 
refrain,  For  all  this  His  anger  is  not  turned  aivay, 
but  His  hand  is  stretched  out  still.  The  complete 
catalogue  is  usually  obtained  by  inserting  between 
the  25th  and  26th  verses  of  chapter  v.  the  long 
passage  from  chapter  ix.,  ver.  8,  to  chapter  x.,  ver.  4. 
It  is  quite  true  that  as  far  as  chapter  v.  itself  is  con- 
cerned it  does  not  need  this  , insertion;  but  ix.  8 — 
x.  4  is  decidedly  out  of  place  where  it  now  lies.  Its 
paragraphs  end  with  the  same  refrain  as   closes  v.   25, 


48  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

which  forms,  besides,  a  natural  introduction  to  them, 
while  V.  26 — 30  form  as  natural  a  conclusion.  The 
latter  verses  describe  an  Assyrian  invasion,  and  it  was 
always  in  an  Assyrian  invasion  that  Isaiah  foresaw  the 
final  calamity  of  Judah.  We  may,  then,  subject  to 
further  light  on  the  exceedingly  obscure  subject  of  the 
arrangement  of  Isaiah's  prophecies,  follow  some  of 
the  leading  critics,  and  place  ix.  8 — x.  4  between  verses 
25 — 26  of  chapter  v. ;  and  the  more  we  examine  them 
the  more  we  shall  be  satisfied  with  our  arrangement, 
for  strung  together  in  this  order  they  form  one  of  the 
most  impressive  series  of  scenes  which  even  an  Isaiah 
has  given  us. 

From  these  scenes  Isaiah  has  spared  nothing  that 
is  terrible  in  history  or  nature,  and  it  is  not  one  of 
the  least  of  the  arguments  for  putting  them  together 
that  their  intensity  increases  to  a  climax.  Earth- 
quakes, armed  raids,  a  great  battle  and  the  slaughter 
of  a  people  ;  prairie  and  forest  fires,  civil  strife  and 
the  famine  fever,  that  feeds  upon  itself;  another  battle- 
field, with  its  cringing  groups  of  captives  and  heaps 
of  slain;  the  resistless  tide  of  a  great  invasion;  and 
then,  for  final  prospect,  a  desolate  land  by  the  sound 
of  a  hungry  sea,  and  the  light  is  darkened  in  the 
clouds  thereof.  The  elements  of  nature  and  the 
elemental  passions  of  man  have  been  let  loose  to- 
gether ;  and  we  follow  the  violent  floods,  remember- 
ing that  it  is  sin  which  has  burst  the  gates  of  the 
imiverse,  and  given  the  tides  of  hell  full  course  through 
it.  '  Over  the  storm  and  battle  there  comes  booming  like 
the  storm-bell  the  awful  refrain,  For  all  this  His  anger 
is  not  turned  away,  but  His  hand  is  stretched  out  still. 
It  is  poetry  of  the  highest  order,  but  in  him  who  reads 
it   with   a    conscience    mere    literary   sensations     are 


v.;  ix.  8— X.  4.]  THE    VINEYARD   OF  THE  LORD.  49 


sobered  by  the  awe  of  some  of  the  most  profound 
moral  phenomena  of  life.  The  persistence  of  Divine 
wrath,  the  long-lingering  effects  of  sin  in  a  nation's 
history,  man's  abuse  of  sorrow  and  his  defiance  of  an 
angry  Providence,  are  the  elements  of  this  great  drama. 
Those  who  are  familiar  with  King  Lear,  will  recog- 
nize these  elements,  and  observe  how  similarly  the 
ways  of  Providence  and  the  conduct  of  men  are 
represented  there  and  here. 

What  Isaiah  unfolds,  then,  is  a  series  of  calamities 
that  have  overtaken  the  people  of  Israel.  It  is  im- 
possible for  us  to  identify  every  one  of  them  with  a 
particular  event  in  Israel's  history  otherwise  known  to 
us.  Some  it  is  not  difficult  to  recognize ;  but  the 
prophet  passes  in  a  perplexing  way  from  Judah  to 
Ephraim  and  Ephraim  to  Judah,  and  in  one  case, 
where  he  represents  Samaria  as  attacked  by  Syria 
and  the  Philistines,  he  goes  back  to  a  period  at 
some  distance  from  his  own.  There  are  also  passages, 
as  for  instance  x.  i — 4,  in  which  we  are  unable  to 
decide  whether  he  describes  a  present  punishment  or 
threatens  a  future  one.  But  his  moral  purpose,  at 
least,  is  plain.  He  will  show  how  often  Jehovah  has 
already  spoken  to  His  people  by  calamity,  and  because 
they  have  remained  hardened  under  these  warnings, 
how  there  now  remains  possible  only  the  last, 
worst  blow  of  an  Assyrian  invasion.  Isaiah  is 
justifying  his  threat  of  so  unprecedented  and  extreme 
a  punishment  for  God's  people  as  overthrow  by  this 
Northern  people,  who  had  just  appeared  upon  Judah's 
political  horizon.  God,  he  tells  Israel,  has  tried  every- 
thing short  of  this,  and  it  has  failed  ;  now  only  this 
remains,  and  this  shall  not  fail.  The  prophet's  purpose, 
therefore,  being  not  an  accurate  historical  recital,   but 

VOL.   I.  4 


50  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

moral  impressi'veiicss,  he  gives  us  a  more  or  less  ideal 
description  of  former  calamities,  mentioning  only  so 
much  as  to  allow  us  to  recognize  here  and  there  that 
it  is  actual  facts  which  he  uses  for  his  purpose  of  con- 
demning Israel  to  captivity,  and  vindicatijig  Israel's 
God  in  bringing  that  captivity  near.  The  passage  thus 
forms  a  parallel  to  that  in  Amos,  with  its  similar 
refrain  :  Yet  ye  have  not  returned  unto  Me,  saith  the 
Lord  (Amos  iv.  6 — 12),  and  only  goes  farther  than 
that  earlier  prophecy  in  indicating  that  the  instruments 
of  the  Lord's  final  judgement  are  to  be  the  Assyrians. 

Five  great  calamities,  says  Isaiah,  have  fallen  on 
Israel  and  left  them  hardened  :  1st,  earthquake  (v. 
25);  2nd,  loss  of  territory  (ix.  8 — 12) ;  3rd,  war  and  a 
decisive  defeat  (ix.  13 — 17)  ;  4th,  internal  anarchy  (ix. 
18 — 21);  5th,  the  near  prospect  of  captivity  (x.  i — 4). 

1.  The  Earthquake  (v.  25). — Amos  closes  his 
series  with  an  earthquake  ;  Isaiah  begins  with  one.  It 
may  be  the  same  convulsion  they  describe,  or  may  not. 
Although  the  skirts  of  Palestine  both  to  the  east  and 
west  frequently  tremble  to  these  disturbances,  an 
earthquake  in  Palestine  itself,  up  on  the  high  central 
ridge  of  the  land,  is  very  rare.  Isaiah  vividly  describes 
its  awful  simplicity  and  suddenness.  The  Lord 
stretched  forth  His  hand  and  smote,  and  the  hills  shook, 
and  their  carcases  were  like  offal  in  the  midst  of  the 
streets.  More  words  are  not  needed,  because  there  was 
notliing  more  to  describe.  The  Lord  lifted  His  hand  ; 
the  hills  seemed  for  a  moment  to  topple  over,  and  when 
the  living  recovered  from  the  shock  there  lay  the 
dead,  flung  like  refuse  about  the  streets, 

2.  The  Loss  of  TEURrroRY  (ix.  8 — 21). — So  awful 
a  calamity,  in  which  the  dying  did  not  die  out  of  sight 
nor  fall  huddled  together  on  some  far  oft"  battle-field,  but 


v.;  ix.  8— X.  4.]   THE   VINEYARD   OE   THE  LORD.  51 

the  whole  land  was  strewn  with  her  slain,  ought  to  have 
left  indelible  impression  on  the  people.  But  it  did  not. 
The  Lord's  own  word  had  been  in  it  for  Jacob  and 
Israel  (ix.  8),  that  the  people  might  knoiv,  even  Ephraim 
and  the  inhabitants  of  Samaria.  But  unhumbled  they 
turned  in  the  stoutness  of  their  hearts,  saying,  when 
the  earthquake  had  passed  :  *  The  bricks  are  fallen,  but  we 
will  build  with  hewn  stones;  t  the  sycamores  are  cut  down, 
but  we  will  change  them  into  cedars.  Calamity  did  not 
make  this  people  thoughtful ;  they  felt  God  only  to 
endeavour  to  forget  Him.  Therefore  He  visited  them 
the  second  time.  They  did  not  feel  the  Lord  shaking  their 
land,  so  He  sent  their  enemies  to  steal  it  from  them  : 
the  Syrians  bejore  and  the  Philistines  behind;  and  they 
devour  Israel  ivith  open  mouth.  What  that  had  been  for 
appalling  suddenness  this  was  for  lingering  and  harass- 
ing— guerilla  warfare,  armed  raids,  the  land  eaten  away 
bit  by  bit.  Yet  the  people  do  not  return  unto  Hun 
that  smote  them,  neither  seek  they  the  Lord  of  hosts. 

3.  War  and  Defeat  (ix.  13 — 17). — The  next  con- 
sequent calamity  passed  from  the  land  to  the  people 
themselves.  A  great  battle  is  described,  in  which  the 
nation  is  dismembered  in  one  day.  War  and  its  horrors 
are  told,  and  the  apparent  want  of  Divine  pity  and 
discrimination  which  they  imply  is  explained.  Israel 
has  been  led  into  these  disasters  by  the  folly  of  their 
leaders,  whom  Isaiah  therefore  singles  out  for  blame. 
For  they  that  lead  these  people  cause  them  to  eiT,  and  they 
that  are  led  of  them  are  destroyed.     But  the  real  horror 


*  Read  past  tenses,  as  in  the  margin  of  Revised  Version,  for  all  the 
future  tenses,  or  better,  the  historical  present,  down  to  the  end  of  the 
chapter. 

t  It  is  part  of  the  argument  for  connecting  ix.  8  with  v.  25  that 
this  phrase  would  be  very  natural  after  the  earthquake  described 
in  V.  25. 


52  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

of  war  is  that  it  falls  not  upon  its  authors,  that  its 
victims  are  not  statesmen,  but  the  beauty  of  a  country's 
youth,  the  helplessness  of  the  widow  and  orphan. 
Some  question  seems  to  have  been  stirred  by  this  in 
Isaiah's  heart.  He  asks,  Why  docs  the  Lord  not 
rejoice  in  the  young  men  of  His  people  ?  Why  has  He 
no  pity  for  widow  and  orphan,  that  He  thus  sacrifices 
them  to  the  sin  of  the  rulers  ?  It  is  because  the 
whole  nation  shares  the  ruler's  guilt ;  every  oju  is  an 
hypocrite  and  an  eml-doer,  and  every  month  speakcth 
folly.  As  ruler  so  people,  is  a  truth  Isaiah  frequently 
asserts,  but  never  with  such  grimness  as  here.  War 
brings  out,  as  nothing  else  does,  the  solidarity  of  a 
people  in  guilt. 

4.  Internal  Anarchy  (ix.  18 — 21). — Even  yet  the 
people  did  not  repent ;  their  calamities  only  drove  them 
to  further  wickedness.  The  prophet's  eyes  are  opened 
to  the  awful  fact  that  God's  wrath  is  but  the  blast  that 
fans  men's  hot  sins  to  flame.  This  is  one  of  those  two 
or  three  awful  scenes  in  history,  in  the  conflaghation 
of  which  we  cannot  tell  what  is  human  sin  and  what 
Divine  judgement.  There  is  a  panic  wickedness, 
sin  spreading  like  mania,  as  if  men  were  possessed 
by  supernatural  powers.  The  physical  metaphors 
of  the  prophet  are  evident :  a  forest  or  prairie  fire, 
and  the  consequent  famine,  whose  fevered  victims 
feed  upon  themselves.  And  no  less  evident  are  the 
political  facts  which  the  prophet  employs  these  meta- 
phors to  describe.  It  is  the  anarchy  which  has  beset 
more  than  one  corrupt  and  unfortunate  people,  when  their 
misleaders  have  been  overthrown:  the  anarchy  in  which 
each  faction  seeks  to  slai'ghter  out  the  rest.  Jealousy 
and  distrust  awake  the  lust  for  blood,  rage  seizes  the 
people   as   fire    the    forest,    and    no    man   spareth    his 


v.;  ix.  8— X.  4.]  THE   VINEYARD   OF  THE  LORD.  53 

brother.  We  have  had  modern  instances  of  all  this  ; 
these  scenes  form  a  true  description  of  some  days  of  the 
French  Revolution,  and  are  even  a  truer  description  of 
the  civil  war  that  broke  out  in  Paris  after  her  late 
siege. 

"  If  that  the  heavens  do  not  their  visible  spirits 
Send  quickly  down  to  tame  these  vile  offences, 
'T  will  come, 

Humanity  must  perforce  prey  on  itself 
Like  monsters  of  the  deep."  * 

5.  The  Threat  of  Captivity  (x.  i — 4). — Turning 
now  from  the  past,  and  from  the  fate  of  Samaria,  with 
which  it  would  appear  he  has  been  more  particularly 
engaged,  the  prophet  addresses  his  own  countrymen  in 
Judah,  and  paints  the  future  for  them.  It  is  not  a 
future  in  which  there  is  any  hope.  The  day  of  their 
visitation  also  will  surely  come,  and  the  prophet  sees 
it  close  in  the  darkest  night  of  which  a  Jewish  heart 
could  think — the  night  of  captivity.  Where,  he  asks 
his  unjust  countrymen — where  will  ye  then  flee  for 
help?  and  where  will  you  leave  your  glory?  Cringing 
among  the  captives,  lying  dead  beneath  heaps  of  dead — 
that  is  to  be  your  fate,  who  will  have  turned  so 
often  and  then  so  finally  from  God.  When  exactly 
the  prophet  thus  warned  his  countrymen  of  captivity 
we  do  not  know,  but  the  warning,  though  so  real, 
produced  neither  penitence  in  men  nor  pity  in  God. 
For  all  this  His  anger  is  not  turned  away,  but  His  hand 
is  stretched  out  still. 

6.  The  Assyrian  Invasion  (v.  26 — 30). — The  prophet 
is,  therefore,  free  to  explain  that  cloud  which  has 
appeared  far  away  on  the  northern  horizon.  God's  hand 
of  judgement  is  still  uplifted  over  Judah,  and  it  is  that 

*  King  Lear,  act  iv.,  sc.  2. 


54  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

hand  which  summons  the  cloud.  The  Assyrians  are 
coming  in  answer  to  God's  signal,  and  they  are  coming 
as  a  flood,  to  leave  nothing  but  ruin  and  distress  behind 
them.  No  description  by  Isaiah  is  more  majestic  than 
this  one,  in  which  Jehovah,  who  has  exhausted  every 
nearer  means  of  converting  His  people,  lifts  His  un- 
drooping  arm  with  a  flag  to  the  nations  that  are  far  off, 
and  hisses  or  whistles  for  tJicni  from  the  end  of  the  earth. 
And,  behold,  they  come  with  speed,  swiftly:  there  is  no 
weary  one  nor  straggler  among  them  ;  none  slumbers  nor 
sleeps ;  nor  loosed  is  the  girdle  of  his  loins,  nor  broken 
the  latchet  of  his  shoes;  whose  arrows  are  sharpened, 
and  all  their  boivs  bent;  their  horses'  hoofs  are  like  thcfrnt, 
and  their  wheels  like  the  ivliirkvind;  a  roar  have  they  like 
the  lion's,  and  they  roar  like  young  lions;  yea,  they  growl 
and  grasp  the  prey,  and  carry  it  off,  and  there  is  none  to 
deliver.  And  they  growl  upon  him  that  day  like  the  growl- 
ing of  the  sea;  and  if  one  looks  to  the  land,  behold,  dark  and 
distress,  and  the  light  is  darkened  in  the  cloudy  heaven. 

Thus  Isaiah  leaves  Judah  to  await  her  doom.  But 
the  tones  of  his  weird  refrain  awaken  in  our  hearts 
some  thoughts  which  will  not  let  his  message  go  from 
us  just  yet. 

It  will  ever  be  a  question,  whether  men  abuse  more 
their  sorrows  or  their  joys  ;  but  no  earnest  soul  can 
doubt,  which  of  these  abuses  is  the  more  fatal.  To  sin 
in  the  one  case  is  to  yield  to  a  temptation ;  to  sin  in  the 
other  is  to  resist  a  Divine  grace.  Sorrow  is  God's  last 
message  to  man ;  it  is  God  speaking  in  emphasis.  He 
who  abuses  it  shows  that  he  can  shut  his  ears  when  God 
speaks  loudest.  Therefore  heartlessness  or  impenitence 
after  sorrow  is  more  dangerous  than  intemperance  in  joy; 
its  results  are  always  more  tragic.  Now  Isaiah  points 
out  that  men's  abuse  of  sorrow  is  twofold.     Men  abuse 


v.;  ix.  8— X.  4.]   THE    VINEYARD  OF  THE  LORD.  55 

sorrow  by  mistaking  it,  and  they  abuse  sorrow  by 
defying  it. 

Men  abuse  sorrow  by  mistaking  it,  when  they  see  in 
it  nothing  but  a  penal  or  expiatory  force.  To  many  men 
sorrow  is  what  his  devotions  were  to  Louis  XL,  which 
having  religiously  performed,  he  felt  the  more  brave  to 
sin.  So  with  the  Samaritans,  who  said  in  the  stoutness 
of  their  hearts,  The  bricks  are  fallen  doivn,  but  we  will 
build  with  hewn  stones;  the  sycouiores  are  cut  down,  but 
we  will  change  them  into  cedars.  To  speak  in  this  way  is 
happy,  but  heathenish.  It  is  to  call  sorrow  "  bad  luck  ;  " 
it  is  to  hear  no  voice  of  God  in  it,  saying,  "  Be  pure; 
be  humble ;  lean  upon  Me."  This  disposition  springs 
from  a  vulgar  conception  of  God,  as  of  a  Being  of  no 
permanence  in  character,  easily  irritated  but  relieved 
by  a  burst  of  passion,  smartly  pun.ishing  His  people  and 
then  leaving  them  to  themselves.  It  is  a  temper  which 
says,  "  God  is  angry,  let  us  wait  a  little ;  God  is 
appeased,  let  us  go  ahead  again."  Over  against  such 
vulgar  views  of  a  Deity  with  a  temper  Isaiah  unveils 
the  awful  majesty  of  God  in  holy  wrath :  For  all  this 
His  anger  is  not  turned  aivay,  but  His  hand  is  stretched 
out  still.  How  grim  and  savage  does  it  appear  to  our 
eyes  till  we  understand  the  thoughts  of  the  sinners  to 
whom  it  was  revealed !  God  cannot  dispel  the  cowardly 
thought,  that  He  is  anxious  only  to  punish,  except  by 
letting  His  heavy  hand  abide  till  it  purify  also.  Tiie 
permanence  of  God's  wrath  is  thus  an  ennobling,  not 
a  stupefying  doctrine. 

Men  also  abuse  sorrow  by  defying  it,  but  the  end  of 
this  is  madness.  "  It  forms  the  greater  part  of  the  tragedy 
of  King  Lear,  that  the  aged  monarch,  though  he  has 
given  his  throne  away,  retains  his  imperiousness  of 
heart,  and  continues  to  exhibit  a  senseless,  if  sometimes 


56  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

picturesque,  pride  and  selfishness  in  face  of  misfortune. 
Even  when  he  is  overthrown  he  must  still  command  ; 
he  fights  against  the  very  elements ;  he  is  determined  to 
be  at  least  the  master  of  his  own  sufferings  and  destiny. 
But  for  this  the  necessary  powers  fail  him ;  his  life  thus 
disordered  terminates  in  madness.  It  was  only  by  such 
an  affliction  that  a  character  like  his  could  be  brought 
to  repentance,  ...  to  humility,  which  is  the  parent  of 
true  love,  and  that  love  in  him  could  be  purified.  Hence 
the  melancholy  close  of  that  tragedy."  *  As  Shakespeare 
has  dealt  with  the  king,  so  Isaiah  with  the  people ;  he 
also  shows  us  sorrow  when  it  is  defied  bringing  forth 
madness.  On  so  impious  a  height  man's  brain  grows 
dizzy,  and  he  falls  into  that  terrible  abyss  which  is 
not,  as  some  imagine,  hell,  but  God's  last  purgatory. 
Shakespeare  brings  shattered  Lear  out  of  it,  and  Isaiah 
has  a  remnant  of  the  people  to  save. 

*  Ulrici :  Shakespeare's  Dramatic  Art. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ISAIAH'S    CALL    AND    CONSECRATION, 

Isaiah  vi.  (740  b.c.  ;  written  735  ?  or  705  ?). 

IT  has  been  already  remarked  that  in  chapter  vi.  we 
should  find  no  other  truths  than  those  which 
have  been  unfolded  in  chapters  ii. — v. :  the  Lord  exalted 
in  righteousness,  the  coming  of  a  terrible  judgement 
\from  Him  upon  Judah,  and  the  survival  of  a  bare 
remnant  of  the  people.  But  chapter  vi.  treats  the 
same  subjects  with  a  difference.  In  chapters  ii. — iv. 
they  gradually  appear  and  grow  to  clearness  in  connec- 
tion with  the  circumstances  of  Judah's  history ;  in 
chapter  v.  they  are  formally  and  rhetorically  vindicated  ; 
in  chapter  vi.'  we  are  led  back  to  the  secret  and  solemn 
moments  of  their  first  inspiration  in  the  prophet's  own 
soul.  It  may  be  asked  why  chapter  vi.  comes  last  and 
not  first  in  this  series,  and  why  in  an  exposition, 
attempting  to  deal,  as  far  as  possible,  chronologically 
with  Isaiah's  prophecies,  his  call  should  not  form  the 
subject  of  the  first  chapter.  The  answer  is  simple, 
and  throws  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  chapter.  In 
all  probability  chapter  vi.  was  written  after  its 
predecessors,  and  what  Isaiah  has  put  into  it  is  not 
only  what  happened  in  the  earliest  moments  of  his 
prophetic  life,  but  that  spelt  out  and  emphasized  by  his 
experience  siuce.     The  ideal  character  of  the  narrative, 


58  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

and  its  date  some  years  after  the  events  which  it  relates, 
are  now  generally  admitted.  Of  course  the  narrative 
is  all  fact.  No  one  will  believe  that  he,  whose  glance 
penetrated  with  such  keenness  the  character  of  men  and 
movements,  looked  with  dimmer  eye  into  his  own  heart. 
It  is  the  spiritual  process  which  the  prophet  actually 
passed  through  before  the  opening  of  his  ministry. 
But  it  is  that,  developed  by  subsequent  experience,  and 
presented  to  us  in  the  language  of  outward  vision. 
Isaiah  had  been  some  years  a  prophet,  long  enough  to 
make  clear  that  prophecy  was  not  to  be  for  him  what 
it  had  been  for  his  predecessors  in  Israel,  a  series  of 
detached  inspirations  and  occasional  missions,  with 
short  responsibilities,  but  a  work  for  life,  a  profession 
and  a  career,  with  all  that  this  means  of  postponement, 
failure,  and  fluctuation  of  popular  feeling.  Success  had 
not  come  so  rapidly  as  the  prophet  in  his  original 
enthusiasm  had  looked  for,  and  his  preaching  had 
effected  little  upon  the  people.  Therefore  he  would  go 
back  to  the  beginning,  remind  himself  of  that  to  which 
God  had  really  called  him,  and  vindicate  the  results  of 
his  ministry,  at  which  people  scoffed  and  his  own  heart 
grew  sometimes  sick.  In  chapter  vi.  Isaiah  acts  as  his 
own  remembrancer.  If  we  keep  in  mind,  that  this 
chapter,  describing  Isaiah's  call  and  consecration  to  the 
prophetic  office,  was  written  by  a  man  who  felt  that 
office  to  be  the  burden  of  a  lifetime,  and  who  had  to 
explain  its  nature  and  vindicate  its  results  to  his  own 
soul — grown  somewhat  uncertain,  it  may  be,  of  her 
original  inspiration — we  shall  find  light  upon  features 
of  the  chapter  that  are  otherwise  most  obscure. 

I.   The  Vision  (vv.  I — 4). 
Several  years,  then,  Isaiah  looks  back  and  says,  In 


vi.]  ISAIAH'S   CALL  AND   CONSECRATION.  59 

the  year  King  Uzziah  died.  There  is  more  than  a 
date  given  here ;  there  is  a  great  contrast  suggested. 
Prophecy  does  not  chronicle  by  time,  but  by  experiences, 
and  we  have  here,  as  it  seems,  the  cardinal  experience 
of  a  prophet's  life. 

All  men  knew  of  that  glorious  reign  with  the  ghastly 
end — fifty  years  of  royalty,  and  then  a  lazar-house. 
There  had  been  no  king  like  this  one  since  Solomon  ; 
never,  since  the  son  of  David  brought  the  Queen  of 
Sheba  to  his  feet,  had  the  national  pride  stood  so  high 
or  the  nation's  dream  of  sovereignty  touched  such 
remote  borders.  The  people's  admiration  invested 
Uzziah  with  all  the  graces  of  the  ideal  monarch.  The 
chronicler  of  Judah  tells  us  that  God  helped  him  and 
made  him  to  prosper,  and  his  name  spread  far  abroad,  and 
he  ivas  marvellously  helped  till  he  was  strong;  he  with  the 
double  name — Azariah,  Jehovah-his-Helper ;  Uzziah, 
Jehovah-his-Strength.  How  this  glory  fell  upon  the 
fancy  of  the  future  prophet,  and  dyed  it  deep,  we  may 
imagine  from  those  marvellous  colours,  with  which  in 
later  years  he  painted  the  king  in  his  beauty.  Think 
of  the  boy,  the  boy  that  was  to  be  an  Isaiah,  the  boy 
with  the  germs  of  this  great  prophecy  in  his  heart — 
think  of  him  and  such  a  hero  as  this  to  shine  upon  him, 
and  we  may  conceive  how  his  whole  nature  opened  out 
beneath  that  sun  of  royalty  and  absorbed  its  light. 

Suddenly  the  glory  was  eclipsed,  and  Jerusalem 
learned  that  she  had  seen  her  king  for  the  last  time  : 
The  Lord  smote  the  king  so  that  he  was  a  leper  unto  the 
day  of  his  death,  and  dwelt  in  a  several  house,  and  he 
ivas  cut  off  from  the  house  of  the  Lord.  Uzziah 
had  gone  into  the  temple,  and  attempted  with  his 
own  hands  to  burn  incense.  Under  a  later  dispen- 
sation of  liberty  he  would  have  been  applauded  as  a 


6o  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

brave  Protestant,  vindicating  the  right  of  every  wor- 
shipper of  God  to  approach  Him  without  the  inter- 
vention of  a  special  priesthood.  Under  the  earher 
dispensation  of  law  his  act  could  be  regarded  only  as 
one  of  presumption,  the  expression  of  a  worldly  and 
irreverent  temper,  which  ignored  the  infinite  distance 
between  God  and  man.  It  was  followed,  as  sins  of 
wilfulness  in  religion  were  always  followed  under  the 
old  covenant,  by  swift  disaster.  Uzziah  suffered  as 
Saul,  Uzzah,  Nadab  and  Abihu  did.  The  wrath,  with 
which  he  burst  out  on  the  opposing  priests,  brought  on, 
or  made  evident  as  it  is  believed  to  have  done  in  other 
cases,  an  attack  of  leprosy.  The  white  spot  stood  out 
unmistakeably  from  the  flushed  forehead,  and  he  was 
thrust  from  the  temple — yea,  himself  also  hasted  to  go  out. 
We  can  imagine  how  such  a  judgement,  the  moral  of 
which  must  have  been  plain  to  all,  affected  the  most 
sensitive  heart  in  Jerusalem.  Isaiah's  imagination  was 
darkened,  but  he  tells  us  that  the  crisis  was  the  enfran- 
chisement of  his  faith.  Li  the  year  King  Uzziah  died — 
it  is  as  if  a  veil  had  dropped,  and  the  prophet  saw  beyond 
what  it  had  hidden,  the  Lord  sitting  on  a  throne 
high  and  lifted  up.  That  it  is  no  mere  date  Isaiah 
means,  but  a  spiritual  contrast  which  he  is  anxious  to 
impress  upon  us,  is  made  clear  by  his  emphasis  of  the 
rank  and  not  the  name  of  God.  It  is  the  Lord  sitting 
upon  a  throne— the  Lord  absolutely,  set  over  against  the 
human  prince.  The  simple  antithesis  seems  to  speak 
of  the  passing  away  of  the  young  man's  hero-worship 
and  the  dawn  of  his  faith ;  and  so  interpreted,  this  first 
verse  of  chapter  vi.  is  only  a  concise  summary  of  that 
development  of  religious  experience  which  we  have 
traced  through  chapters  ii.— iv.  Had  Isaiah  ever 
been  subject   to   the  religious  temper  of  his  time,  the 


vi.]  ISAIAH'S   CALL  AND   CONSECRATION.  (n 

careless  optimism  of  a  prosperous  and  proud  people, 
who  entered  upon  their  religious  services  without  awe, 
trampling  the  courts  of  the  Lord,  and  used  them  like 
Uzziah,  for  their  own  honour,  who  felt  religion  to  be 
an  easy  thing,  and  dismissed  from  it  all  thoughts  of 
judgement  and  feelings  of  penitence — if  ever  Isaiah  had 
been  subject  to  that  temper,  then  once  for  all  he  was 
redeemed  by  this  stroke  upon  Uzziah.  And,  as  we 
have  seen,  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  Isaiah 
did  at  first  share  the  too  easy  public  religion  of  his 
youth.  That  early  vision  of  his  (ii.  2 — 5),  the  estab- 
lishment of  Israel  at  the  head  of  the  nations,  to  bo 
immediately  attained  at  his  own  word  (v.  5)  and  with- 
out preliminary  purification,  was  it  not  simply  a  less 
gross  form  of  the  king's  own  religious  presumption  ? 
Uzziah's  fatal  act  was  the  expression  of  the  besetting 
sin  n^  his  people,  and  in  that  sin  Isaiah  himself  had  been 
a  partaker.  /  atJt  a  man  of  unclean  lips,  and  I  dzvell  in 
the  nu'dst  of  a  people  of  unclean  lips.  In  the  person 
of  their  monarch  the  temper  of  the  whole  Jewish 
nation  had  come  to  judgement.  Seeking  the  ends  of 
religion  by  his  own  way,  and  ignoring  the  way  God 
had  appointed,  Uzziah  at  the  very  moment  of  his  in- 
sistence was  hurled  back  and  stamped  unclean.  The 
prophet's  eyes  were  opened.  The  king  sank  into  a 
leper's  grave,  but  before  Isaiah's  vision  the  Divine 
majesty  arose  in  all  its  loftiness.  /  saiv  the  Lord  high 
and  lifted  up.  We  already  know  what  Isaiah  means 
by  these  terms.  He  has  used  them  of  God's  supremacy 
in  righteousness  above  the  low  moral  standards  of  men, 
of  God's  occupation  of  a  far  higher  throne  than  that  of 
the  national  deity  of  Judah,  of  God's  infinite  superiority 
to  Israel's  vulgar  identification  of  His  purposes  with 
her  material  prosperity  or  His  honour  with  the  com- 


y 


62  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

promises  of  her  politics,  and  especially  of  God's  seat  as 
their  Judge  over  a  people,  who  sought  in  their  religion 
only  satisfaction  for  their  pride  and  love  of  ease. 

From  this  contrast  the  whole  vision  expands  as 
follows. 

Under  the  mistaken  idea  that  what  Isaiah  describes 
is  the  temple  in  Jerusalem,  it  has  been  remarked,  that 
the  place  of  his  vision  is  wonderful  in  the  case  of  one 
who  set  so  little  store  by  ceremonial  worship.  This, 
however,  to  which  our  prophet  looks  is  no  house 
built  with  hands,  but  Jehovah's  own  heavenly  palace 
(ver.  I — not  temple) ;  only  Isaiah  describes  it  in  terms 
of  the  Jerusalem  temple  which  was  its  symbol.  It  was 
natural  that  the  temple  should  furnish  Isaiah  not  only 
with  the  framework  of  his  vision,  but  also  with  the 
platform  from  which  he  saw  it.  For  it  was  in  the  temple 
that  Uzziah's  sin  was  sinned  and  God's  holiness  vin- 
dicated upon  him.  It  was  in  the  temple  that,  when 
Isaiah  beheld  the  scrupulous  religiousness  of  the  people, 
the  contrast  of  that  with  their  evil  lives  struck  him,  and 
he  summed  it  up  in  the  epigram  wickedness  ami  worship 
(i.  13).  It  was  in  the  temple,  in  short,  that  the 
prophet's  conscience  had  been  most  roused,  and  just 
where  the  conscience  is  most  roused  there  is  the  vision 
of  God  to  be  expected.  Very  probably  it  was  while 
brooding  over  Uzziah's  judgement  on  the  scene  of  its 
occurrence  that  Isaiah  beheld  his  vision.  Yet  for  all 
the  vision  contained  the  temple  itself  was  too  narrow. 
The  truth  which  was  to  be  revealed  to  Isaiah,  the  holi- 
ness of  God,  demanded  a  wider  stage  and  the  breaking 
down  of  those  partitions,  which,  while  they  had  been 
designed  to  impress  God's  presence  on  the  worshipper, 
had  only  succeeded  in  veiling  Him.  So  while  the 
seer  keeps  his  station  on  the  threshold  of  the  earthly 


vi.]  ISAIAH'S   CALL  AND   CONSECRATION.  63 

building,  soon  to  feel  it  rock  beneath  his  feet,  as  heaven's 
praise  bursts  like  thunder  on  the  earth,  and  while  his 
immediate  neighbourhood  remains  the  same  familiar 
house,  all  beyond  is  glorified.  The  veil  of  the  temple 
falls  away,  and  everything  behind  it.  No  ark  nor 
mercy-seat  is  visible,  but  a  throne  and  a  court — 
the  palace  of  God  in  heaven,  as  we  have  it  also  picture<l 
in  the  eleventh  and  twenty-ninth  Psalms.  The  Royal 
Presence  is  everywhere.  Isaiah  describes  no  face,  only 
a  Presence  and  a  Session  :  the  Lord  sitting  on  a  throne, 
and  His  skirts  filled  the  palace. 

"  No  face ;  only  the  sight 
Of  a  sweepy  garment  vast  and  white 
With  a  hem  that  I  could  recognize."  * 

Around  (not  above,  as  in  the  English  version)  were 
ranged  the  hovering  courtiers,  of  what  shape  and  appear- 
ance we  know  not,  except  that  they  veiled  their  faces 
and  their  feet  before  the  awful  Holiness, — all  wings 
and  voice,  perfect  readinesses  of  praise  and  service. 
The  prophet  heard  them  chant  in  antiphon,  like  the 
temple  choirs  of  priests.  And  the  one  choir  cried  out, 
Holy,  holy,  holy  is  Jehovah  of  hosts ;  and  the  other 
responded,   The  ivhole  earth  is  full  of  His  glory. 

It  is  by  the  familiar  name  Jehovah  of  hosts — the  proper 
name  of  Israel's  national  God — that  the  prophet  hears 
the  choirs  of  heaven  address  the  Divine  Presence, 
But  what  they  ascribe  to  the  Deity  is  exactly  what 
Israel  will  not  ascribe,  and  the  revelation  they  make 
of  His  nature  is  the  contradiction  of  Israel's  thoughts 
concerning  Him. 

What,  in  the  first  place,  is  holiness  ?  We  attach 
this  term  to  a  definite  standard  of  morality  or  an  un- 

*  Browning's  "  Christmas  Eve." 


v/ 


64  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

usually  impressive  fulness  of  character.  To  our  minds 
it  is  associated  with  very  positive  forces,  as  of  comfort 
and  conviction — perhaps  because  we  take  our  ideas  of 
it  from  the  active  operations  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The 
original  force  of  the  term  holiness,  however,  was  not 
positive  but  negative,  and  throughout  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, whatever  modifications  its  meaning  undergoes,  it 
retains  a  negative  flavour.  The  Hebrew  word  for 
holiness  springs  from  a  root  which  means  to  set 
apart,  make  distmct,  put  at  a  distance  from.  When  God 
is  described  as  the  Holy  One  in  the  Old  Testament  it 
is  generally  with  the  purpose  of  withdrawing  Him  from 
some  presumption  of  men  upon  His  majesty  or  of 
negativing  their  unworthy  thoughts  of  Him.  The  Holy 
One  is  the  Incomparable  :  To  ivhom,  then,  will  ye  liken 
Me,  that  I  should  be  equal  to  him  ?  saith  the  Holy  One 
(xl.  25).  He  is  the  Unapproachable :  Who  is  able  to 
stand  before  Jehovah,  this  holy  God?  (l  Sam.  vi.  20). 
He  is  the  Utter  Contrast  of  man  :  /  am  God,  and  not 
man,  the  Holy  One  in  the  midst  of  thee  (Hosea  xi.  9). 
He  is  the  Exalted  and  Sublime  :  Thus  saith  the  high 
and  lofty  One  that  inhabitcth  eternity,  ivhose  name  is 
Holy:  I  dwell  in  the  high  and  holy  place  (Ivii.  15). 
Generally  speaking,  then,  holiness  is  equivalent  to 
separateness,  sublimity — in  fact,  just  to  that  loftiness 
or  exaltation  which  Isaiah  has  already  so  oftei 
reiterated  as  the  principal  attribute  of  God.  In  thei 
thrice-repeated  Holy  the  seraphs  are  only  telling 
more  emphatically  to  the  prophet's  ears  what  his 
eyes  have  already  seen,  the  Lord  high  and  lifted  up. 
Better  expression  could  not  be  found  for'  the  full  idea 
of  Godhead.  This  little  word  Holy  radiates  heaven's 
own  breadth  of  meaning.  Within  its  fundamental  idea — 
distance  or  difference  from  man — what  spaces  are  there 


VI.]  IS AI Airs   CALL  AND   CONSECRATION.  65 

not  for  every  attribute  of  Godhead  to  flash  ?  If 
the  Holy  One  be  originally  He  who  is  distinct  from 
man  and  man's  thoughts,  and  who  impresses  man 
from  the  beginning  with  the  awful  sublimity  of  the 
contrast  in  which  He  stands  to  him,  how  naturally 
may  holiness  come  to  cover  not  only  that  moral  purity 
and  intolerance  of  sin  to  which  we  now  more  strictly 
apply  the  term,  but  those  metaphysical  conceptions  as 
well,  which  we  gather  up  under  the  name  "  supernatural," 
and  so  finally,  by  lifting  the  Divine  nature  away  from 
the  change  and  vanity  of  this  world,  and  emphasizing 
God's  independence  of  all  beside  Himself,  become  the 
fittest  expression  we  have  for  Him  as  the  Infinite 
and  Self-existent.  Thus  the  word  Jioly  appeals  in 
turn  to  each  of  the  three  great  faculties  of  man's  nature, 
by  which  he  can  be  religiously  exercised — his  conscience, 
his  affections,  his  reason ;  it  covers  the  impressions 
which  God  makes  on  man  as  a  sinner,  on  man  as  a 
worshipper,  on  man  as  a  thinker.  The  Holy  One  is 
not  only  the  Sinless  and  Sin-abhorring,  but  the  Sublime 
and  the  Absolute  too. 

But  while  we  recognize  the  exhaustiveness  of  the 
scries  of  ideas  about  the  Divine  Nature,  which  develop 
from  the  root  meaning  of  holiness,  and  to  express 
which  the  word  holy  is  variously  used  throughout 
the  Scriptures,  we  must  not,  if  we  are  to  appreciate  the 
use  of  the  word  on  this  occasion,  miss  the  motive  of 
recoil  which  starts  them  all.  If  we  would  hear  what 
Isaiah  heard  in  the  seraphs'  song,  we  must  distinguish  in 
the  three-fold  ascription  of  holiness  the  intensity  of 
recoil  from  the  confused  religious  views  and  low  moral 
temper  of  the  prophet's  generation.  It  is  no  scholastic 
definition  of  Deity  which  the  seraphim  are  giving. 
Not  for  a  moment  is  it  to  be  supposed,  that  to  that 
VOL.   I.  5 


66  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

age,  whose  representative  is  listening  to  tlicm,  they  are 
attempting  to  convey  an  idea  of  the  Trinity.  Their 
thrice-uttered  Holy  is  not  theological  accuracy,  but 
religious  emphasis.  This  angelic  revelation  of  the 
holiness  of  God  was  intended  for  a  generation,  some  of 
whom  were  idol-worshippers,  confounding  the  Godhead 
with  the  work  of  their  own  hands  or  with  natural 
objects,  and  none  of  whom  were  free  from  a  confusion 
in  principle  of  the  Divine  with  the  human  and  worldly, 
for  which  now  sheer  mental  slovenliness,  now  a  dull 
moral  sense,  and  now  positive  pride  was  to  blame. 
To  worshippers  who  trampled  the  courts  of  the 
Lord  with  the  careless  feet,  and  locked  up  the  temple 
with  the  unabashed  faces,  of  routine,  the  cry  of 
the  seraphs,  as  they  veiled  their  faces  and  their  feet, 
travailed  to  restore  that  shuddering  sense  of  the 
sublimity  of  the  Divine  Presence,  which  in  the  im- 
pressible youth  of  the  race  first  impelled  man,  bowing 
low  beneath  the  awful  heavens,  to  name  God  by  the 
name  of  the  Holy.  To  men,  again,  careful  of  the 
legal  forms  of  worship,  but  lawless  and  careless  in 
their  lives,  the  song  of  the  seraphs  revealed  not  the 
hard  truth,  against  which  they  had  already  rubbed 
conscience  trite,  that  God's  law  was  inexorable,  but  the 
fiery  fact  that  His  whole  nature  burned  with  wrath 
towards  sin.  To  men,  once  more,  proud  of  their 
prestige  and  material  prosperity,  and  presuming  in  their 
pride  to  take  their  own  way  with  God,  and  to  employ 
like  Uzziah  the  exercises  of  religion  for  their  own 
honour,  this  vision  presented  the  real  sovereignty  of 
God  :  the  Lord  Himself  seated  on  a  throne  tJicre — ^just 
where  they  felt  only  a  theatre  for  the  display  of  their 
pride,  or  machinery  for  the  attainment  of  their 
private    ends.      Thus   did    the   three-fold   cry   of  the 


.]  IS  A I  Airs   CALL  AND   CONSECRATION.  67 


angels   meet  the  three-fold    sinfulness  of  that  genera- 
tion of  men. 

But  the  first  line  of  the  seraph's  song  serves  more 
than  a  temporary  end.  The  Trisagion  rings,  and  has 
need  to  ring,  for  ever  down  the  Church.  Everywhere 
and  at  all  times  these  are  the  three  besetting  sins  of 
religious  people — callousness  in  worship,  carelessness 
in  life,  and  the  temper  which  employs  the  forms  of 
religion  simply  for  self-indulgence  or  self-aggrandise- 
ment. These  sins  are  induced  by  the  same  habit  of 
contentment  with  mere  form  ;  they  can  be  corrected 
only  by  the  vision  of  the  Personal  Presence  who  is 
behind  all  form.  Our  organization,  ritual,  law  and 
sacrament — we  must  be  able  to  see  them  fall  away, 
as  Isaiah  saw  the  sanctuary  itself  disappear,  before 
God  Himself,  if  we  are  to  remain  heartily  moral  and 
fervently  religious.  The  Church  of  God  has  to  learn 
that  no  mere  multiplication  of  forms,  nor  a  more 
aesthetic  arrangement  of  them,  will  redeem  her  worship- 
pers from  callousness.  Callousness  is  but  the  shell 
which  the  feelings  develop  in  self-defence  when  left  by 
the  sluggish  and  impenetrative  soul  to  beat  upon  the 
hard  outsides  of  form.  And  nothing  will  fuse  this 
shell  of  callousness  but  that  ardent  flame,  which  is 
kindled  at  the  touching  of  the  Divine  and  human  spirits* 
when  forms  have  fallen  away  and  the  soul  beholds 
with  open  face  the  Eternal  Himself.  As  with  worship, 
so  with  morality.  Holiness  is  secured  not  by  cere- 
monial, but  by  a  reverence  for  a  holy  Being.  We 
shall  rub  our  consciences  trite  against  moral  maxims 
or  religious  rites.  It  is  the  eflluence  of  a  Presence, 
which  alone  can  create  in  us,  and  keep  in  us,  a  clean  heart. 
And  if  any  object  that  we  thus  make  light  of  ritual  and 
religious  law,  of  Church  and  sacrament,   the  reply  is 


68  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

obvious.  Ritual  and  sacrament  are  to  the  living  God 
but  as  the  wick  of  a  candle  to  the  light  thereof.  They 
are  given  to  reveal  Him,  and  the  process  is  not  perfect 
unless  they  themselves  perish  from  the  thoughts  to 
which  they  convey  Him.  If  God  is  not  felt  to  be 
present,  as  Isaiah  felt  Him  to  be,  to  the  exclusion  of 
all  forms,  then  these  will  be  certain  to  be  employed,  as 
Uzziah  employed  them,  for  the  sake  of  the  only  other 
spiritual  being  of  whom  the  worshipper  is  conscious — 
him.self.  Unless  we  are  able  to  forget  our  ritual  in 
spiritual  communion  with  the  very  God,  and  to  become 
unconscious  of  our  organization  in  devout  consciousness 
of  our  personal  relation  to  Him,  then  ritual  will  be  only 
a  means  of  sensuous  indulgence,  organization  only  a 
machinery  for  selfish  or  sectarian  ends.  The  vision 
of  God — this  is  the  one  thing  needful  for  worship 
and  for  conduct. 

But  while  the  one  verse  of  the  antiphon  reiterates 
what  Jehovah  of  hosts  is  in  Himself,  the  other  describes 
what  He  is  in  revelation.  The  whole  earth  is  full  of 
His  glory.  Glory  is  the  correlative  of  holiness.  Glory 
is  that  in  which  holiness  comes  to  expression.  Glory 
is  the  expression  of  holiness,  as  beauty  is  the  expression 
of  health.  If  holiness  be  as  deep  as  we  have  seen,  so 
varied  then  will  glory  be.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
earth  but  it  is  the  glory  of  God.  The  fulness  of  the 
whole  earth  is  His  glory,  is  the  proper  grammatical 
rendering  of  the  song.  For  Jehovah  of  hosts  is  not 
the  God  only  of  Israel,  but  the  Maker  of  heaven  and 
earth,  and  not  the  victory  of  Israel  alone,  but  the 
wealth  and  the  beauty  of  all  the  world  is  His  glory. 
So  universal  an  ascription  of  glory  is  the  proper  parallel 
to  that  of  absolute  Godhead,  which  is  implied  in 
holiness. 


vi.]  IS AI Airs   CALL   AND   CONSECRATION.  69 


II.  The  Call  (vv.  4 — 8). 
Thus,  then,  Isaiah,  standing  on  earth,  on  the  place 
of  a  great  sin,  with  the  conscience  of  his  people's  evil 
in  his  heart,  and  himself  not  without  the  feeling  of 
guilt,  looked  into  heaven,  and  beholding  the  glory  of 
God,  heard  also  with  what  pure  praise  and  readiness 
of  service  the  heavenly  hosts  surround  His  throne. 
No  Nvonder  the  prophet  felt  the  polluted  threshold  <ock 
beneath  him,  or  that  as  where  fire  and  water  mingle 
there  should  be  the  rising  of  a  great  smoke.  For  the 
smoke  described  is  not,  as  some  have  imagined,  that 
of  acceptable  incense,  thick  billows  swelling  through 
the  temple  to  express  the  completion  and  satisfaction 
of  the  seraphs'  worship ;  but  it  is  the  mist  which 
ever  arises  where  holiness  and  sin  touch  each  other* 
It  has  been  described  both  as  the  obscurity  that 
envelops  a  weak  mind  in  presence  of  a  truth  too  great 
for  it,  and  the  darkness  that  falls  upon  a  diseased  eye 
when  exposed  to  the  mid-day  sun.  These  are  only 
analogies,  and  may  mislead  us.  What  Isaiah  actually 
felt  was  the  dim-eyed  shame,'  the  distraction,  the 
embarrassment,  the  blinding  shock  of  a  personal  en-  y 
counter  with  One  whom  he  was  utterly  unfit  to 
meet.  For  this  was  a  personal  encounter.  We 
have  spelt  out  the  revelation  sentence  by  sentence  in 
gradual  argument ;  but  Isaiah  did  not  reach  it  through 
argument  or  brooding.  It  was  not  to  the  prophet  what 
it  is  to  his  expositors,  a  pregnant  thought,  that  his 
intellect  might  gradually  unfold,  but  a  Personal  Presence, 
^  which  apprehended  and  overwhelmed  him.  God  and 
he  were  there  face  to  face.  Then  said  I,  Woe  is  me,  for 
I  am  undone,  because  a  man  tcnclean  of  lips  am  I,  and 
in  the  midst  of  a  people  unclean  of  lips  do  I  dwell ; 
for  the  King,  fehovah  of. hosts,  mine  eyes  have  beheld. 


70  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

The  form  of  the  prophet's  confession,  imclcamicss  oj 
lips,  will  not  surprise  us  as  far  as  he  makes  it  for 
himself.  As  with  the  disease  of  the  body,  so  with  the 
sin  of  the  soul;  each  often  gathers  to  one  point  of  pain. 
Every  man,  though  wholly  sinful  by  nature,  has  his  own 
particular  consciousness  of  guilt.  Isaiah  being  a  prophet 
felt  his  mortal  weakness  most  upon  his  lips.  The 
inclusion  of  the  people,  however,  along  with  himself 
under  this  form  of  guilt,  suggests  a  wider  interpretation 
of  it.  The  lips  are,  as  it  were,  the  blossom  of  a  man. 
Grace  is  poured  upon  thy  lips,  therefore  God  hath  blessrd 
thee  j or  ever.  If  any  man  offend  not  in  word,  the  same  is 
a  perfect  man,  able  to  bridle  the  whole  body  also.  It  is  in 
the  blossom  of  a  plant  that  the  plant's  defects  become 
conspicuous ;  it  is  when  all  a  man's  faculties  combine 
for  the  complex  and  delicate  office  of  expression  that 
any  fault  which  is  in  him  will  come  to  the  surface. 
Isaiah  had  been  listening  to  the  perfect  praise  of  sinless 
beings,  and  it  brought  into  startling  relief  the  defects  of 
his  own  people's  worship.  Unclean  of  lips  these  were 
indeed  when  brought  against  that  heavenly  choir. 
Their  social  and  political  sin — sin  of  heart  and  home 
and  market — came  to  a  head  in  their  worship,  and 
what  should  have  been  the  blossom  of  their  life  fell 
to  the  ground  like  a  rotten  leaf  beneath  the  stainless 
beauty  of  the  seraphs'  praise. 

While  the  prophet  thus  passionately  gathered  his 
guilt  upon  his  lips,  a  sacrament  was  preparing 
on  which  God  concentrated  His  mercy  to  meet  it. 
Sacrament  and  lips,  applied  mercy  and  presented 
sin,  now  come  together.  Then  flew  unto  me  one 
of  the  seraphim,  and  in  his  hand  a  glotving  stone 
— -with  tongs  had  he  taken  it  off  the  altar — and  he 
touched  my  mouth  and  said,  Lo,  this  hath  touched  thy 


.]  ISAIAH'S   CALL  AND   CONSECRATION.  71 


lips,   and  so   thy  iniquity  passcth    aivay  and  thy  sin  is 
atoned  for. 

The  idea  of  this  function  is  very  evident,  and  a 
scholar  who  has  said  that  it  "  would  perhaps  be  quite 
intelligible  to  the  contemporaries  of  the  prophet,  but  is 
undoubtedly  obscure  to  us,"  appears  to  have  said  just 
the  reverse  of  what  is  right ;  for  so  simple  a  process 
of  atonement  leaves  out  the  most  characteristic  details 
of  the  Jewish  ritual  of  sacrifice,  while  it  anticipates  in 
an  unmistakeable  manner  the  essence  of  the  Christian 
sacrament.  In  a  scene  of  expiation  laid  under  the  old 
covenant,  we  are  struck  by  the  absence  of  oblation  or 
sacrificial  act  on  the  part  of  the  sinner  himself.  There 
is  here  no  victim  slain,  no  blood  sprinkled ;  an  altar  is 
only  parenthetically  suggested,  and  even  then  in  its 
simplest  form,  of  a  hearth  on  which  the  Divine  fire  is 
continually  burning.  The  glowing  stone,  not  live 
coal  as  in  the  English  version,  was  no  part  of  the 
temple  furniture,  but  the  ordinary  means  of  conveying 
heat  or  applying  fire  in  the  various  purposes  of  house- 
hold life.  There  was,  it  is  true,  a  carrying  of  fire  in 
some  of  the  temple  services,  as,  for  example,  on  the 
great  Day  of  Atonement,  but  then  it  was  effected  by  a 
small  grate  filled  with  living  embers.  In  the  household, 
on  the  other  hand,  when  cakes  had  to  be  baked,  or  milk 
boiled,  or  water  warmed,  or  in  fifty  similar  applications 
of  fire,  a  glowing  stone  taken  from  off  the  hearth  was 
the  invariable  instrument.  It  is  this  swift  and  simple 
domestic  process  which  Isaiah  now  sees  substituted 
for  the  slow  and  intricate  ceremonial  of  the  temple 
— a  seraph  with  a  glowing  stone  in  his  hand, 
with  tongs  had  he  taken  it  off  the  altar.  And  yet  the 
prophet  feels  this  only  as  a  more  direct  expression  of 
the  very  same  idea,  with  which  the  elaborate  ritual  was 


72  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

inspired — for  which  the  victim  was  slain,  and  the  flesh 
consumed  in  fire,  and  the  blood  sprinkled.  Isaiah 
desires  nothing  else,  and  receives  no  more,  than  the 
ceremonial  law  was  intended  to  assure  to  the  sinner — 
pardon  of  his  sin  and  reconciliation  to  God.  But  our 
prophet  will  have  conviction  of  these  immediately,  and 
with  a  force  which  the  ordinary  ritual  is  incapable  of 
expressing.  The  feelings  of  this  Jew  are  too  intense 
and  spiritual  to  be  satisfied  with  the  slow  pageant 
of  the  earthly  temple,  whose  performances  to  a  man 
in  his  horror  could  only  have  appeared  so  indifferent 
and  far  away  from  himself  as  not  to  be  really  his 
own  nor  to  effect  what  he  passionately  desired. 
Instead  therefore  of  laying  his  guilt  in  the  shape  of 
some  victim  on  the  altar,  Isaiah,  with  a  keener  sense 
of  its  inseparableness  from  himself,  presents  it  to  God 
upon  his  own  lips.  Instead  of  being  satisfied  with 
beholding  the  fire  of  God  consume  it  on  another  body 
than  his  own,  at  a  distance  from  himself,  he  feels 
that  fire  visit  the  very  threshold  of  his  nature,  where 
he  has  gathered  the  guilt,  and  consume  it  there.  The 
whole  secret  of  this  startling  nonconformity  to  the  law, 
on  the  very  floor  of  the  temple,  is  that  for  a  man  who 
has  penetrated  to  the  presence  of  God  the  legal  forms 
are  left  far  behind,  and  he  stands  face  to  face  with  the 
truth  by  which  they  are  inspired.  In  that  Divine 
Presence  Isaiah  is  his  own  altar ;  he  acts  his  guilt 
in  his  own  person,  and  so  he  feels  the  expiatory  fire 
come  to  his  very  self  directly  from  the  heavenly  hearth. 
It  is  a  replica  of  the  fifty-first  Psalm :  For  Thou 
delightest  not  in  sacrifice,  else  would  I  give  it;  Thou  hast 
no  pleasure  in  burnt  offering.  The  sacrifices  of  God  are\ 
a  broken  spirit.  This  is  my  sacrifice,  my  sense  of  guilt  I 
gathered  here  upon  my  lips  :  my   broken   and  contrite 


vi.]  tSAIAIVS  CALL  AND  CONSECRATION.  73 

heart,    who    feel  myself  undone  before    Thee,     Lord, 
Thou  wilt  not  despise. 

It  has  always  been  remarked  as  one  of  the  most 
powerful  proofs  of  the  originality  and  Divine  force  of 
Christianity,  that  from  man's  worship  of  God,  and 
especially  from  those  parts  in  which  the  forgiveness 
of  sin  is  sought  and  assured,  it  did  away  with  the 
necessity  of  a  physical  rite  of  sacrifice  ;  that  it  broke  the 
universal  and  immemorial  habit  by  which  man  pre- 
sented to  God  a  material  offering  for  the  guilt  of  his 
soul.  By  remembering  this  fact  we  may  measure  the 
religious  significance  of  the  scene  we  now  contemplate. 
Nearly  eight  centuries  before  there  was  accomplished 
upon  Calvary  that  Divine  Sacrifice  for  sin,  which 
abrogated  a  rite  of  expiation,  hitherto  universally 
adopted  by  the  conscience  of  humanity,  we  find  a  Jew, 
in  the  dispensation  where  such  a  rite  was  most  religi- 
ously enforced,  trembling  under  the  conviction  of  sin, 
and  upon  a  floor  crowded  with  suggestions  of  physical 
sacrifice ;  yet  the  only  sacrifice  he  offers  is  the  purely 
spiritual  one  of  confession.  It  is  most  notable.  Look 
at  it  from  a  human  point  of  view,  and  we  can  estimate 
Isaiah's  immense  spiritual  originality  ;  look  at  it  from  a 
Divine,  and  we  cannot  help  perceiving  a  distinct  fore- 
shadow of  what  was  to  take  place  by  the  blood  of  Jesus 
under  the  new  covenant.  To  this  man,  as  to  some  others 
of  his  dispensation,  whose  experience  our  Christian  sym- 
pathy recognizes  so  readily  in  the  Psalms,  there  was 
granted  aforetime  boldness  to  enter  into  the  holiest. 
For  this  is  the  explanation  of  Isaiah's  marvellous  dis- 
regard of  the  temple  ritual.  It  is  all  behind  him.  This 
man  has  passed  within  the  veil.  Forms  are  all  behind 
him,  and  he  is  face  to  face  with  God.  But  between  two 
beings  in  that  position,  intercourse  by  the  far  off  and 


74  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

uncertain  signals  of  sacrifice  is  inconceivable.  It  can 
only  take  place  by  the  simple  unfolding  of  the  heart. 
Jt  must  be  rational,  intelligent  and  by  speech.  When 
man  is  at  such  close  quarters  with  God  what  sacrifice 
is  possible  but  the  sacrifice  of  the  lips  ?  Form  for  the 
Divine  reply  there  must  be  some,  for  even  Christianity 
has  its  sacraments,  but  like  them  this  sacrament  is  of  the 
very  simplest  form,  and  like  them  it  is  accompanied  by 
the  explanatory  word.  As  Christ  under  the  new  covenant 
took  bread  and  wine,  and  made  the  homely  action  of 
feeding  upon  them  the  sign  and  seal  to  His  disciples 
of  the  forgiveness  of  their  sins,  so  His  angel  under  the 
old  and  sterner  covenant  took  the  more  severe,  but 
as  simple  and  domestic  form  of  fire  to  express  the 
same  to  His  prophet.  And  we  do  well  to  emphasize 
that  the  experimental  value  of  this  sacrament  of  fire  is 
bestowed  by  the  word  attached  to  it.  It  is  not  a  dumb 
sacrament,  with  a  magical  efficacy.  But  the  prophet's 
mind  is  persuaded  and  his  conscience  set  at  peace  by 
the  intelligible  words  of  the  minister  of  the  sacrament. 
Isaiah's  sin  being  taken  away,  he  is  able  to  discern 
the  voice  of  God  Himself.  It  is  in  the  most  beautiful 
"•  accordance  with  what  has  already  happened  that  he 
hears  this  not  as  command,  but  request,  and  answers 
not  of  compulsion,  but  of  freedom.  And  I  heard  the 
voice  of  the  Lord  saying^  Whom  iJiall  I  send?  and  who 
will  go  for  us  ?  And  I  said,  Here  am  I ;  send  me. 
What  spiritual  understanding  alike  of  the  will  of  God 
and  the  responsibility  of  man,  what  evangelic  liberty 
and  boldness,  are  here  !  Here  we  touch  the  spring  of 
that  high  flight  Isaiah  takes  both  in  prophecy  and  in 
active  service  for  the  Stale.  Here  we  have  the  secret 
of  the  filial  freedom,  the  life-long  sense  of  responsi- 
bility,  the    regal     power  of    initiative,    the    sustained 


vi.]  ISAIAH'S  CALL  AND  CONSECRATION.  75 

and  unfaltering  career,  which  distinguish  Isaiah  among 
the  ministers  of  the  old  covenant,  and  stamp  him 
prophet  by  the  heart  and  for  the  life,  as  many  of 
them  are  only  by  the  office  and  for  the  occasion. 
Other  prophets  are  the  servants  of  the  God  of  heaven  ; 
Isaiah  stands  next  the  Son  Himself.  On  others  the 
hand  of  the  Lord  is  laid  in  irresistible  compulsion  ; 
the  greatest  of  them  are  often  ignorant,  by  turns 
headstrong  and  craven,  deserving  correction,  and 
generally  in  need  of  supplementary  calls  and  inspira- 
tions. Put  of  such  scourges  and  such  doles  Isaiah's 
royal  career  is  absolutely  without  a  trace.  His  course, 
begun  in  freedom,  is  pursued  without  hesitation  or 
anxiety ;  begun  in  utter  self-sacrifice,  it  knows  hence- 
forth no  moment  of  grudging  or  disobedience.  Esaias  is 
very  bold,  because  he  is  so  free  and  so  fully  devoted. 
In  the  presence  of  mind  with  which  he  meets  each 
sudden  change  of  politics  during  that  bewildering  half- 
century  of  Judah's  history,  we  seem  to  hear  his  calm 
voice  repeating  its  first,  Here  am  L  Presence  of  .mind 
he  always  had.  The  kaleidoscope  shifts  :  it  is  now 
Egyptian  intrigue,  now  Assyrian  force ;  now  a  false 
king  requiring  threat  of  displacement  by  God's  own 
hero,  now  a  true  king,  but  helpless  and  in  need  of 
consolation  ;  now  a  rebellious  people  to  be  condemned, 
and  now  an  oppressed  and  penitent  one  to  be  en- 
couraged : — different  dangers,  with  different  sorts  of 
salvation  possible,  obliging  the  prophet  to  promise 
different  futures,  and  to  say  things  inconsistent  with 
what  he  had  already  said.  Yet  Isaiah  never  hesitates; 
he  can  always  say.  Here  am  I.  We  hear  that 
voice  again  in  the  spontaneousness  and  versatility 
of  his  style.  Isaiah  is  one  of  the  great  kings  of 
literature,  with  every  variety  of  style  under  his  sway, 


76  Tim  BOOK  OF  ISAIAIJ. 

passing  with  perfect  readiness,  as  subject  or  occaf^ion 
calls,  from  one  to  another  of  the  tones  of  a  superbly 
cndov/ed  nature.  Everywhere  this  man  impresses  us 
with  his  personality,  with  the  wealth  of  his  nature  and 
the  perfection  *of  his  control  of  it.  But  the  personality 
is  consecrated.  The  Here  am  I  is  followed  by  the^^ 
send  me.  And  its  health,  harmony  and  boldness, 
are  derived,  Isaiah  being  his  ow'n  witness,  from  this 
early  sense  of  pardon  and  purification  at  the  Divine 
hands.  Isaiah  is  indeed  a  king  and  a  priest  unto  God — 
a  king  with  all  his  powers  at  his  own  command,  a  priest 
with  them  all  consecrated  to  the  service  of  Heaven. 

One  cannot  pass  away  from  these  verses  without 
observing  the  plain  answer  which  they  give  to  the 
question.  What  is  a  call  to  the  ministry  of  God  ?  In 
these  days  of  dust  and  distraction,  full  of  party  cries, 
with  so  many  side  issues  of  doctrine  and  duty  presenting 
themselves,  and  the  solid  attractions  of  so  many  other 
services  insensibly  leading  men  to  look  for  the  same 
sort  of  attractiveness  in  the  ministry,  it  may  prove 
a  relief  to  some  to  ponder  the  simple  elements  of 
Isaiah's  call  to  be  a  professional  and  life-long  prophet. 
Isaiah  got  no  "  call  "  in  our  conventional  sense  of  the 
word,  no  compulsion  that  he  must  go,  no  articulate 
voice  describing  him  as  the  sort  of  man  needed  for  the 
work,  nor  any  of  those  similar  "  calls  "  which  sluggish 
and  craven  spirits  so  often  desire  to  relieve  them  of 
the  responsibility  or  the  strenuous  effort  needed  in 
deciding  for  a  profession  which  their  conscience  will 
not  permit  them  to  refuse.  Isaiah  got  no  such  call. 
After  passing  through  the  fundamental  religious 
experiences  of  forgiveness  and  cleansing,  which  are 
in  every  case  the  indispensable  premises  of  life  with 
God.  Isaiah  was  left  to  himself.     No  direct  summons 


vi.]  ISAIAH'S   CALL  AND  CONSECRATION.  77 

was  addressed  to  him,  no  compulsion  was  laid  on  him  ; 
but  he  heard  the  voice   of  God   asking  generally  for 

/messengers,  and  he  on  his  own  responsibility  answered 
it  for  himself  in  particular.  He  heard  from  the  Divine 
lips  of  the  Divine  need  for  messengers,  and  he  was 
immediately  full  of  the  mind  that  he  was  the  man  for 
the  mission,  and  of  the  heart  to  give  himself  to  it.  So 
great  an  example  cannot  be  too  closely  studied  by 
candidates  for  the  ministry  in  our  own  day.  Sacrifice 
is  not  the  half-sleepy,  half-reluctant  submission  to  the 
force  of  circumstance  or  opinion,  in  which  shape  it  is 
so  often  travestied  among  us,  but  the  resolute  self- 
surrender  and  willing  resignation  of  a  free  and 
reasonable  soul.  There  are  many  in  our  day  who 
look  for  an  irresistible  compulsion  into  the  ministry 
of  the  Church  ;  sensitive  as  they  are  to  the  material 
bias  by  which  men  roll  off  into  other  professions,  they 
pray  for  something  of  a  similar  kind  to  prevail  with 
them  in  this  direction  also.  There  are  men  who  pass 
into  the  ministry  by  social  pressure  or  the  opinion  of 

^the  circles  they  belong  to,  and  there  are  men  who 
adopt  the  profession  simply  because  it  is  on  the  line  of 
least  resistance.  From  which  false  beginnings  rise  the 
spent  force,  the  premature  stoppages,  the  stagnancy, 
the  aimlessness  and  heartlessness,  which  are  the 
scandals  of  the  professional  ministry  and  the  weateiess 
of  the  Christian  Church  in  our  day.  Men  who  drift 
into  the  ministry,  as  it  is  certain  so  many  do,  become 
mere  ecclesiastical  flotsam  and  jetsam,  incapable  of 
giving  carriage  to  any  soul  across  the  waters  of  this 
life,  uncertain  of  their  own  arrival  anywhere,  and  of  all 
the  waste  of  their  generation,  the  most  patent  and  dis- 
graceful. God  will  have  no  drift-wood  for  His  sacrifices, 
no  drift-men  for  His  ministers.     Self-consecration  is  the 


78  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

beginning  of  His  service,  and  a  sense  of  our  own  freedom 
and  our  own  responsibility  is  an  indispensable  element 
in  the  act  of  self-consecration.  We — not  God — have 
to  make  the  decision.  We  are  not  to  be  dead,  but 
living,  sacrifices,  and  everything  which  renders  us  less 
than  fully  alive  both  mars  at  the  time  the  sincerity  of 
our  surrender  and  reacts  for  evil  upon  the  whole  of 
our  subsequent  ministry. 

III.  The  Commission  (vv.  9 — 13). 
A  heart  so  resolutely  devoted  as  we  have  seen  Isaiah's 
to  be  was  surely  prepared  against  any  degree  of  dis- 
couragement, but  probably  never  did  man  receive  so 
awful  a  commission  as  he  describes  himself  to  have 
done.  Not  that  we  are  to  suppose  that  this  fell  upon 
Isaiah  all  at  once,  in  the  suddenness  and. distinctness 
with  which  he  here  records  it.  Our  sense  of  its  awful- 
ness  will  only  be  increased  when  we  realize  that 
Isaiah  became  aware  of  it,  not  in  the  shock  of  a 
single  discovery,  sufficiently  great  to  have  carried 
its  own  anaesthetic  along  with  it,  but  through  a 
prolonged  process  of  disillusion,  and  at  the  pain 
of  those  repeated  disappointments,  which  are  all  the 
more  painful  that  none  singly  is  great  enough  to 
stupefy.  It  is  just  at  this  point  of  our  chapter, 
that  jve  feel  most  the  need  of  supposing  it  to  have 
been  written  some  years  after  the  consecration  of 
Isaiah,  when  his  experience  had  grown  long  enough 
to  articulate  the  dim  forebodings  of  that  solemn 
moment.  Go  and  say  to  this  people^  Hearing,  hear  ye, 
but  widerstaiid  not;  seeing,  see  ye,  but  know  not.  Make 
fat  the  heart  of  tJiis  people,  and  its  ears  make  heavy,  and 
its  eyes  smear,  lest  it  see  with  its  eyes,  and  hear  with  its 
ears,  and  its  heart  understand,  and  it  turn  again  a)id 


vi.l  ISAIAH'S  CALL  AND  CONSECRATION  79 

be  healed.  No  prophet,  we  may  be  sure,  would  be 
asked  by  God  to  go  and  tell  his  audiences  that  in 
so  many  words,  at  the  beginning  of  his  career.  It 
is  only  by  experience  that  a  man  understands  that 
kind  of  a  commission,*  and  for  the  required  experience 
Isaiah  had  not  long  to  wait  after  entering  on  his 
ministry.  Ahaz  himself,  in  whose  death-year  it  is 
supposed  by  many  that  Isaiah  wrote  this  account  of 
his  consecration — the  conduct  of  Ahaz  himself  was 
sufficient  to  have  brought  out  the  convictions  of  the 
•prophet's  heart  in  this  startling  form,  in  which  he 
has  stated  his  commission.  By  the  word  of  the  Lord 
and  an  offer  of  a  sign  from  Him,  Isaiah  did  make  fat 
that  monarch's  heart  and  smear  his  eyes.  And  per- 
verse as  the  rulers  of  Judah  were  in  the  examples 
and  policies  they  set,  the  people  were  as  blindly  bent 
on  following  them  to  destruction.  Every  one,  said 
Isaiah,  when  he  must  have  been  for  some  time  a 
prophet — every  one  is  a  hypocrite  and  an  evildoer,  and 
every  month  spcakcth  folly. 

But  if  that  clear,  bitter  way  of  putting  the  matter 
can  have  come  to  Isaiah  only  with  the  experience  of 
some  years,  why  does  he  place  it  upon  the  lips  of  God, 
as  tiiey  give  him  his  commission  ?  Because  Isaiah  is 
stating  not  merely  his  own  singular  experience,  but  a 
truth  always  true  of  the  preaching  of  the  word  of 
God,  and  of  which  no  prophet  at  the  time  of  his 
coiisecration  to  that  ministry  can  be  without  at  least 
a  foreboding.  We  have  not  exhausted  the  meaning 
of  this  awful  commission  when  we  say  that  it  is  only 

*  Even  Calvin,  though  in  order  to  prove  that  Isaiah  had  Lee  i 
prophesying  for  some  time  before  his  inaugural  vision,  says  that 
his  commission  impUes  some  years'  actual  experience  of  tlie  obstinacy 
of  the  people. 


So  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

a   forcible   anticipation   of  the    prophet's    actual  expe- 
rience.   There  is  more  here  than  one  man's  experience. 
Over  and  over  again   are   these  words  quoted   in  the 
New  Testament,  till  we  learn  to  find  them  true  always 
and  everywhere  that  the  Word  of  God  is  preached  to 
men, — the  description  of  what   would  seem  to   be  its 
necessary  effect    upon    many   souls.     Both  Jesus    and 
Paul   use    Isaiah's   commission    of  themselves.     They 
do    so    like     Isaiah    at   an    advanced    stage    in   their 
ministry,    when    the    shock    of  misunderstanding    and 
rejection    has    been    repeatedly    felt,    but     then     not' 
solely   as    an    apt    description    of    their    own    expe- 
rience.     They    quote    God's    words    to    Isaiah    as    a 
prophecy   fulfilled   in  their  own    case — that  is  to  say, 
as    the    statement    of  a    great    principle    or    truth    of 
which   their  own    ministry   is    only    another    instance. 
Their    own    disappointments    have    roused    them    to 
the  fact,   that   this  is  always    an    effect    of  the  word 
of    God    upon    numbers    of    men — to     deaden    their 
spiritual   faculties.     While   Matthew  and  the    book   of 
Acts  adopt  the  milder  Greek  version  of  Isaiah's  com- 
mission, John  gives  a  rendering  that  is  even  stronger 
than  the  original.     He  hath  blinded,  he  says  of  God 
Himself,  their  eyes  and  hardened  their  hearts,   lest  they 
should  see  with  their  eyes  and  perceive  with  their  hearts. 
In  Mark's  narrative  Christ  says  that  He  speaks  to  them 
that  are  outside  in  parables,  /or  the  purpose  that  seeing 
they  may  see,  and  not  perceive,  and  hearing  they  may  hear, 
and  not  understand,  lest  haply  they  should  turn  again 
and  it  should  be  forgiven  them.     We  may  suspect,  in 
an   utterance    so    strange  to  the  lips   of  the   Lord   of 
salvation,  merely  the  irony  of  His  baffled  love.     But  it 
is  rather    the  statement  of  what   He   believed   to    be 
tiie  necessary  effect  of  a  ministry  like  His  own.     It 


ISAIAH'S  CALL  AND  CONSECRATION.  8i 

marks  the  direction,  not  of  His  desire,  but  of  natural 
sequence. 

With  these  instances  we  can  go  back  to  Isaiah  and 
understand  why  he  should  have  described  the  bitter 
fruits  of  experience  as  an  imperative  laid  upon  him  by 
God.  Make  fat  the  heart  of  this  people,  and  its  ears  make 
heavy,  and  its  eyes  do  thou  smear.  It  is  the  fashion  of 
the  prophet's  grammar,  when  it  would  state  a  principle 
or  necessary  effect,  to  put  it  in  the  form  of  a  com- 
mand. What  God  expresses  to  Isaiah  so  imperatively 
as  almost  to  take  our  breath  away  ;  what  Christ 
uttered  with  such  abruptness  that  we  ask,  Does  He 
speak  in  irony  ?  what  Paul  laid  down  as  the  con- 
viction of  a  long  and  patient  ministry,  is  the  great 
truth  that  the  Word  of  God  has  not  only  a  saving 
power,  but  that  even  in  its  gentlest  pleadings  and  its 
purest  Gospel,  even  by  the  mouth  of  Him  who  came, 
not  to  condemn,  but  to  save  the  world,  it  has  a  power 
that  is  judicial  and  condemnatory. 

It  is  frequently  remarked  by  us  as  perhaps  the 
most  deplorable  fact  of  our  experience,  that  there 
exists  in  humtin  nature  an  accursed  f^icility  for  turn- 
ing God's  gifts  to  precisely  the  opposite  ends  from 
those  for  which  He  gave  them.  So  common  is 
man's  misunderstanding  of  the  plainest  signs,  and 
so  frequent  his  abuse  of  the  most  evident  favours 
of  Heaven,  that  a  spectator  of  the  drama  of  human 
history  might  imagine  its  Author  to  have  been  a  Cynic 
or  Comedian,  portraying  for  His  own  amusement  the 
loss  of  the  erring  at  the  very  moment  of  what  might 
have  been  their  recovery,  the  frustration  of  love  at  the 
point  of  its  greatest  warmth  and  xqjectancy.  Let  him 
look  closer,  however,  and  he  will  perceive,  not  a  comedy, 
but  a  tragedy,  for  neither  chance  nor  cruel  sport  is  here 

VOL.   I.  6 


82  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

at  work,  but  free  will  and  the  laws  of  habit,  with  retri- 
bution and  penalty.  These  actors  are  not  puppets  in 
the  hand  of  a  Power  that  moves  them  at  will ;  each  of 
them  plays  his  own  part,  and  the  abuse  and  contradic- 
tion, of  which  he  is  guilty,  are  but  the  prerogative  of  his 
freedom.  They  are  free  beings  who  thus  reject  the 
gift  of  Divine  assistance,  and  so  piteously  misunder- 
stand Divine  truth.  Look  closer  still,  and  you  will  see 
that  the  way  they  talk,  the  impression  they  accept  of 
God's  goodness,  the  effect  of  His  judgements  upon  them, 
is  determined  not  at  the  moment  of  their  choice,  and 
not  by  a  single  act  of  their  will,  but  by  the  whole  tenor 
of  their  previous  life.  In  the  sudden  flash  of  some 
gift  or  opportunity,  men  reveal  the  stuff  of  which  they 
are  made,  the  disposition  they  have  bred  in  themselves. 
Opportunity  in  human  life  is  as  often  judgement  as  it 
is  salvation.  When  we  perceive  these  things,  we 
luiderstand  that  life  is  not  a  comedy,  where  chance 
governs  or  incongruous  situations  are  invented  by  an 
Almighty  Satirist  for  his  own  sport,  but  a  tragedy, 
with  all  tragedy's  pathetic  elements  of  royal  wills 
contending  in  freedom  with  each  other,  of  men's  wills 
clashing  with  God's :  men  the  makers  of  their  own 
destinies,  and  Nemesis  not  directing,  but  following 
their  actions.  We  go  back  to  the  very  fundamentals 
of  our  nature  on  this  dread  question.  To  understand 
what  has  been  called  "a  great  law  in  human  degene- 
lacy,"  that  "  the  evil  heart  can  assimilate  good  to  itself 
;.nd  convert  it  to  its  nature,"  we  must  understand  what 
free  will  means,  and  take  into  account  the  terrible 
influence  of  habit. 

Now  there  is  no  more  conspicuous  instance  of  this 
law,  than  that  which  is  afforded  by  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel   of  God,     God's  Word,   as    Christ  reminds   us, 


vi.]  ISAIAH'S  CALL  AND  CONSECRATION.  83 

does  not  fall  on  virgin  soil ;  it  falls  on  soil  already  hold- 
ing other  seed.  When  a  preacher  stands  up  with  the 
Word  of  God  in  a  great  congregation,  vast  as  Scripture 
warrants  us  for  believing  his  power  to  be,  his  is  not  the 
only  power  that  is  operative.  Each  man  present  has  a 
life  behind  that  hour  and  place,  lying  away  in  the 
darkness,  silent  and  dead  as  far  as  the  congregation  are 
concerned,  but  in  his  own  heart  as  vivid  and  loud  as 
the  voice  of  the  preacher,  though  he  be  preaching 
never  so  forcibly.  The  prophet  is  not  the  only  power 
in  the  delivery  of  God's  Word,  nor  is  the  Holy  Spirit 
the  only  power.  That  would  make  all  preaching  of  the 
Word  a  mere  display.  But  the  Bible  represents  it  as  a 
strife.  And  now  it  is  said  of  men  themselves  that  they 
harden  their  hearts  against  the  Word,  and  now — 
because  such  hardening  is  the  result  of  previous  sinning, 
and  has  therefore  a  judicial  character — that  God 
hardens  their  hearts.  Simon,  Simon,  said  Christ  to  a 
face  that  spread  out  to  His  own  all  the  ardour  of 
worship,  Satan  is  desiring  to  have  you,  but  I  have  prayed 
that  your  faith  Jail  not.  God  sends  His  Word  into 
our  hearts;  the  Mediator  stands  by,  and  prays  that 
it  make  us  His  own.  But  there  are  other  factors  in 
the  operation,  and  the  result  depends  on  our  own  will ; 
it  depends  on  our  own  will,  and  it  is  dreadfully  deter- 
mined by  our  habits. 

Now  this  is  one  of  the  first  facts  to  which  a  young 
reformer  or  prophet  awakes.  Such  an  awakening 
is  a  necessary  element  in  his  education  and  appren- 
ticeship. He  has  seen  the  Lord  high  and  lifted 
up.  His  lips  have  been  touched  by  the  coal  from  ort 
the  altar.  His  first  feeling  is  that  nothing  can  with- 
stand that  power,  nothing  gainsay  this  inspiration.  Is 
he  a  Nehemiah,  and  the  hand  of  the  Lord  has  been 


84  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


mighty  upon  him  ?  Then  he  feels  that  he  has  but  to  tell 
his  fellows  of  it  to  make  them  as  enthusiastic  in  the 
Lord's  work  as  himself.  Is  he  a  Mazzini,  aflame  from 
his  boyhood  with  aspirations  for  his  country,  con- 
secrated from  his  birth  to  the  cause  of  duty  ?  Then 
he  leaps  with  joy  upon  his  mission ;  he  has  but  to  show 
himself,  to  speak,  to  lead  the  way,  and  his  country  is 
free.  Is  he — to  descend  to  a  lower  degree  of  prophecy 
— a  Fourier,  sensitive  more  than  most  to  how  anarchic 
society  is,  and  righteously  eager  to  settle  it  upon  stable 
foundations?  Then  he  draws  his  plans  for  reconstruc- 
tion, he  projects  his  phalanges  and  phalansteres,  and 
beheves  that  he  has  solved  the  social  problem.  Is  he 
— to  come  back  to  the  heights — an  Isaiah,  with  the 
Word  of  God  in  him  like  fire  ?  Then  he  sees  his 
vision  of  the  perfect  state ;  he  thinks  to  lift  his  people 
to  it  by  a  word.  O  house  of  Jacob,  he  says,  come  ye, 
and  let  lis  walk  in  the  li^ht  of  the  Lord  ! 

For  all  of  whom  the  next  necessary  stage  of  experi- 
ence is  one  of  disappointment,  with  the  hard  commission, 
Make  the  heart  of  this  people  fat.  They  must  learn  that, 
if  God  has  caught  themselves  young,  and  when  it 
was  possible  to  make  them  entirely  His  own,  the 
human  race  to  whom  He  sends  them  is  old,  too  old 
for  them  to  effect  much  upon  the  mass  of  it  beyond 
the  hardening  and  perpetuation  of  evil.  Fourier  finds 
that  to  produce  his  perfect  State  he  would  need  to 
re-create  mankind,  to  cut  down  the  tree  to  the  very 
roots,  and  begin  again.  After  the  first  rush  of  patriotic 
fervour,  which  carried  so  many  of  his  countr3'men  with 
him,  Mazzini  discovers  himself  in  "  a  moral  desert," 
confesses  that  the  struggle  to  liberate  his  fatherland, 
which  has  ojily  quickened  him  to  further  devotion  in  so 
great  a  cause,  has  been  productive  of  scepticism  in  his 


vi.]  ISAIAH'S  CALL  AND  CONSECRATION.  85 

followers,  and  has  left  them  withered  and  hardened  of 
heart,  whom  it  had  found  so  capable  of  heroic  impulses. 
He  tells  us  how  they  upbraided  and  scorned  him,  left  him 
in  exile,  and  returned  to  their  homes,  from  which  they 
had  set  out  with  vows  to  die  for  their  country,  doubting 
now  whether  there  was  anything  at  all  worth  living  or 
dying  for  outside  themselves.  Mazzini's  description  of 
the  first  passage  of  his  career  is  invaluable  for  the 
light  which  it  throws  upon  this  commission  of  Isaiah. 
History  does  not  contain  a  more  dramatic  representa- 
tion of  the  entirely  opposite  effects  of  the  same  Di';  ine 
movement  upon  different  natures.  While  the  first 
efforts  for  the  liberty  of  Italy  materialized  the  greater 
number  of  his  countrymen,  whom  Mazzini  had  persuaded 
to  embark  upon  it,  the  failure  and  their  consequent 
defection  only  served  to  strip  this  heroic  soul  of  the 
last  rags  of  selfishness,  and  consecrate  it  more  utterly 
to  the  will  of  God  and  the  duty  that  lay  before  it. 

A  few  sentences  from  the  confessions  of  the  Italian 
patriot  may  be  quoted,  with  benefit  to  our  appreciation 
of  what  the  Hebrew  prophet  must  have  passed  through. 

"It  was  the  tempest  of  doubt,  which  I  believe  all  who  devote  their 
lives  to  a  great  enterprise,  yet  have  not  dried  and  withered  up  their 
soul— like  Robespiurre — beneath  some  barren  intellectual  formula, 
but  have  retained  a  loving  heart,  are  doomed,  once  at  least,  to  battle 
through.  My  heart  was  overflowing  with  and  greedy  of  affection, 
as  fresh  and  eager  to  unfold  to  joy  as  in  the  days  when  sustained  by 
my  mother's  smile,  as  full  of  fervid  hope  for  others,  at  least,  if  not 
for  myself.  But  during  these  fatal  months  there  darkened  round  me 
such  a  hurricane  of  sorrow,  disillusion  and  deception  as  to  bring 
before  my  eyes,  in  all  its  ghastly  nakedness,  a  foreshadowing  of  the 
old  age  of  my  soul,  solitary  in  a  desert  world,  wherein  no  comfort  in 
the  struggle  was  vouchsafed  to  me.  It  was  not  only  the  ovei  throw 
for  an  indefinite  period  of  every  Italian  hope,  ...  it  v/as  the 
falling  to  pieces  of  that  moral  edifice  of  faith  and  love  from  which 
alone  I  had  derived  strength  for  the  combat ;  the  scepticism  I  saw 
arising  round  me  on  every  side ;  the  failure  of  faith  in  those  who  had 


86  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

solemnly  bound  tlicmselves  to  pursue  unshaken  the  path  we  had 
known  at  the  outset  to  be  choked  with  sorrows;  the  distrust  I  de- 
tected in  those  most  dear  to  me,  as  to  the  motives  and  intentions 
which  sustained  and  urged  me  onward  in  the  evidently  unequal 
struggle.  .  .  .  When  I  felt  that  I  was  indeed  alone  in  the  world, 
I  drew  back  in  terror  at  the  void  before  me.  There,  in  that  moral 
desert,  doubt  came  upon  me.  Perhaps  I  was  wrong,  and  the  world 
right?  Perhaps  my  idea  was  indeed  a  dream?  .  .  .  One  morning 
I  awoke  to  find  my  mind  tranquil  and  my  spirit  calmed,  as  one  who 
has  passed  through  a  great  danger.  The  first  thought  that  passed 
across  my  spirit  was.  Your  stifferings  are  the  temptations  of  egotism, 
and  arise  front  a  misconception  of  life.  ...  I  perceived  that  although 
every  instinct  of  my  heart  rebelled  against  that  fatal  and  ignoble 
definition  of  life  which  makes  it  to  be  a  search  after  happiness,  yet 
I  had  not  completely  freed  myself  from  the  dominating  influence 
exercised  by  it  upon  the  age.  ...  I  had  been  unable  to  realize  the 
true  ideal  of  love — love  without  earthly  hope.  .  ,  .  Life  is  a  mission, 
duty  therefore  its  highest  law.  From  the  idea  of  God  I  descended 
to  faith  in  a  mission  and  its  logical  consequence — duty  the  supreme 
rule  of  life ;  and  having  reached  that  faith,  I  swore  to  myself  that 
nothing  in  this  world  should  again  make  me  doubt  or  forsake  it. 
It  was,  as  Dante  says,  passing  through  martyrdom  to  peace — 'a 
forced  and  desperate  peace.'  I  do  not  deny,  for  I  fraternized  with 
sorrow,  and  wrapped  myself  in  it  as  in  a  mantle ;  but  yet  it  was 
peace,  for  1  learned  to  sulfer  without  rebellion,  and  to  live  calmly  and 
in  harmony  with  my  own  spirit.  I  reverently  bless  God  the  Father 
for  what  consolations  of  aft'ection — I  can  conceive  of  no  other — He 
has  vouchsafed  to  me  in  my  later  years ;  and  in  them  I  gather 
strength  to  struggle  with  the  occasional  return  of  weariness  of  ex- 
istence. But  even  were  these  consolations  denied  me,  I  believe  I 
should  still  be  what  I  am.  Whether  the  sun  shine  with  the  serene 
splendour  of  an  Italian  noon,  or  the  leaden,  corpse-like  hue  of  the 
northern  mist  be  above  us,  I  cannot  see  that  it  changes  our  duty. 
God  dwells  above  the  earthly  heaven,  and  the  holy  stars  of  faith  and 
the  future  still  shine  within  our  souls,  even  though  their  light  con- 
sume itself  unreflected  as  the  sepulchral  lamp." 

Such  sentences  are  the  best  commentary  we  can 
offer  on  our  text.  The  cases  of  the  Hebrew  and 
Italian  prophets  are  wonderfully  alike.  We  who 
have  read  Isaiah's  fifth  chapter  know  how  his  heart 
also  was  "  overflowing  with  and  greedy  of  affection," 


VI.]  ISAIAH'S   CALL  AND   CONSECRATION.  87 

and  in  the  second  and  third  chapters  we  have  seen 
"  the  hurricane  of  sorrow,  disillusion  and  deception 
darken  round  him."  "  The  falling  to  pieces  of  the 
moral  edifice  of  faith  and  love,"  "  scepticism  rising  on 
every  side,"  "  failure  of  faith  in  those  who  had  solemnly 
bound  themselves,"  "  distrust  detected  in  those  most 
dear  to  me" — and  all  felt  by  the  prophet  as  the 
effect  of  the  sacred  movement  God  had  inspired  him 
to  begin  : — how  exact  a  counterpart  it  is  to  the  cumula- 
tive process  of  brutalizing  which  Isaiah  heard  God  lay 
upon  him,  with  the  imperative  Make  the  heart  of  this 
people  fat!  In  such  a  morally  blind,  deaf  and  dead- 
hearted  world  Isaiah's  faith  was  indeed  "  to  consume 
itself  unreflected  like  the  sepulchral  lamp."  The 
glimpse  into  his  heart  given  us  by  Mazzini  enables 
us  to  realize  with  what  terror  Isaiah  faced  such  a  void. 
O  Lord,  how  long?  This,  too,  breathes  the  air  of 
"  a  forced  and  desperate  peace,"  the  spirit  of  one 
who,  having  realized  life  as  a  mission,  has  made  the 
much  more*  rare  recognition  that  the  logical  conse- 
quence is  neither  the  promise  of  success  nor  the  as- 
surance of  sympathy,  but  simply  the  acceptance  of 
duty,  with  whatever  results  and  under  whatever  skies 
it  pleases  God  to  bring  over  him. 

Until  cities  fall  into  ruin  without  an  inhabitant^ 

And  houses  without  a  man, 

And  the  land  be  left  desolately  waste, 

And  fehovah  have  removed  man  far  away, 

And  great  be  the  desert  in  the  midst  of  the  land; 

And  still  if  there  be  a  tenth  in  it. 

Even  it  shall  be  again  for  consuming. 

Like  the  terebinth,  and  like  the  oak. 

Whose  stock  when  they  are  felled  remaineth  in  them, 

The  holy  seed  shall  be  its  stock. 


THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


The  jneaning  of  these  words  is  too  plain  to  require 
exposition,  but  we  can  hardly  over-emphasize  them. 
This  is  to  be  Isaiah's  one  text  throughout  his  career. 
"Judgement  shall  pass  through;  a  remnant  shall 
remain."  All  the  politics  of  his  day,  the  movement  of 
the  world's  forces,  the  devastation  of  the  holy  land, 
the  first  captivities  of  the  holy  people,  the  reiterated 
defeats  and  disappointments  of  the  next  fifty  years — 
all  shall  be  clear  and  tolerable  to  Isaiah  as  the  fulfilling 
of  the  sentence  to  which  he  listened  in  such  "  forced 
and  desperate  peace  "  on  the  day  of  his  consecration. 
He  has  had  the  worst  branded  into  him  ;  henceforth 
no  man  nor  thing  may  trouble  him.  He  has  seen  the 
worst,  and  knows  there  is  a  beginning  beyond.  So 
when  the  wickedness  of  Judah  and  the  violence  of 
Asnyria  alike  seem  most  unrestrained — Assyria  most 
bent  on  destroying  Judah,  and  Judah  least  worthy  to  live 
— Isaiah  will  yet  cling  to  this,  that  a  remnant  must 
remain.  All  his  prophecies  will  be  variations  of  this 
text ;  it  is  the  key  to  his  apparent  paradoxes.  He 
will  proclaim  the  Assyrians  to  be  God's  instrument, 
yet  devote  them  to  destruction.  He  will  hail  their 
advance  on  Judah,  and  yet  as  exultingly  mark  its  limit, 
because  of  the  determination  in  which  he  asked  the 
question,  O  Lord,  how  long?  and  the  clearness  with 
which  he  understood  the  until,  that  came  in  answer 
to  it.  Every  prediction  he  makes,  every  turn  he  seeks 
to  give  to  the  practical  politics  of  Judah,  are  simply 
due  to  his  grasp  of  these  two  facts — a  withering  and 
repeated  devastation,  in  the  end  a  bare  survival.  He  has, 
indeed,  prophecies  which  travel  farther;  occasionally  he 
is  permitted  to  indulge  in  visions  of  a  new  dispensation. 
Like  Moses,  he  climbs  his  Pisgah,  but  he  is  like  Moses 
also  in  this,  that  his  lifetime  is  exhausted  with  the  attain- 


vi.]  ISAIAH'S   CALL  AND   CONSECRATION.  S9 

ment  of  the  margin  of  a  long  period  of  judgement  and 
struggle,  and  then  he  passes  from  our  sight,  and  no 
man  knoweth  his  sepulchre  unto  this  day.  As  abruptly 
as  this  vision  closes  with  the  announcement  of  the 
remnant^  so  abruptly  does  Isaiah  disappear  on  the 
fulfilment  of  the  announcement — some  forty  years  sub- 
sequent to  this  vision — in  the  sudden  rescue  of  the 
holy  seed  from  the  grasp  of  Sennacherib. 

We  have  now  finished  the  first  period  of  Isaiah's 
career.  Let  us  catalogue  what  are  his  leading  doctrines 
up  to  this  point.  High  above  a  very  sinful  people,  and 
beyond  all  their  conceptions  of  Him,  Jehovah,  the 
national  God,  rises  holy,  exalted  in  righteousness. 
From  such  a  God  to  such  a  people  it  can  only  be 
judgement  and  affliction  that  pass  ;  and  these  shall  not 
be  averted  by  the  fact  that  He  is  the  national  God, 
and  they  His  worshippers.  Of  this  affliction  the 
Assyrians  gathering  far  off  upon  the  horizon  are 
evidently  to  be  the  instruments.  The  affliction  shall 
be  very  sweeping ;  again  and  again  shall  it  come  ;  but 
the  Lord  will  finally  save  a  remnant  of  His  people. 
Three  elements  compose  this  preaching — a  very  keen 
and  practical  conscience  of  sin  ;  an  overpowering  vision 
of  God,  in  whose  immediate  intimacy  the  prophet 
believes  himself  to  be ;  and  a  very  sharp  perception  of 
the  politics  of  the  day. 

One  question  rises.  In  this  part  of  Isaiah's  ministry 
there  is  no  trace  of  that  Figure  whom  we  chiefly 
identify  with  his  preaching,  the  Messiah.  Let  us  have 
patience ;  it  is  not  time  for  him ;  but  the  following  is 
his  connection  with  the  prophet's  present  doctrines. 

Isaiah's  great  result  at  present  is  the  certainty  of 
a  remnant.      That  remnant  will  require  two  things — 


90  THE  BOOK  OF  IJAIAH. 

they  will  require  a  rallying-point,  and  they  will  require 
a  leader.  Henceforth  Isaiah's  prophesying  will  be 
bent  to  one  or  other  of  these.  The  two  grand  purposes 
of  his  word  and  work  will  be,  for  the  sake  of  the 
remnant,  the  inviolateness  of  Zion,  and  the  coming 
of  the  Messiah.  The  former  he  has,  indeed,  already 
intimated  (chap,  iv.) ;  the  latter  is  now  to  share  with 
it  his  hope  and  eloquence. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  WORLD  IN  ISAIAH'S  DAY  AND  ISRAEL'S  GOD. 

735-730    B.C. 

UP  to  this  point  we  have  been  acquainted  with 
Isaiah  as  a  prophet  of  general  principles,  preach- 
ing to  his  countrymen  the  elements  of  righteousness  and 
judgement,  and  tracing  the  main  lines  of  fate  along 
which  their  evil  conduct  was  rapidly  forcing  them.  We 
are  now  to  observe  him  applying  these  principles  to  the 
executive  politics  of  the  time,  and  following  Judah's 
conduct  to  the  issues  he  had  predicted  for  it  in  the 
world  outside  herself  Hitherto  he  has  been  concerned 
with  the  inner  morals  of  Jewish  society ;  he  is  now  to 
engage  himself  with  the  effect  of  these  on  the  fortunes  of 
the  Jewish  State.  In  his  seventh  chapter  Isaiah  begins 
that  career  of  practical  statesmanship,  which  not  only 
made  him  "  the  greatest  political  power  in  Israel  since 
David,"  but  placed  him,  far  above  his  importance  to  his 
own  people,  upon  a  position  of  influence  over  all  ages. 
To  this  eminence  Isaiah  was  raised,  as  we  shall  see, 
by  two  things.  First,  there  was  the  occasion  of  his 
times,  for  he  lived  at  a  juncture  at  which  the  vision  of 
the  World,  as  distinguished  from  the  Nation,  opened  to 
his  people's  eyes.  Second,  he  had  the  faith  which 
enabled  him  to  realize  the  government  of  the  World  by 
the   One  God,   whom    he   has  already  beheld  exalted 


92  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

and  sovereign  within  the  Nation.  In  the  Nation  wc 
have  seen  Isaiah  led  to  emphasize  very  absohitely 
the  righteousness  of  God  ;  applying  this  to  the  whole 
World,  he  is  now  to  speak  as  the  prophet  of  what 
we  call  Providence.  He  has  seen  Jehovah  ruling  in 
righteousness  in  Judah  ;  he  is  now  to  take  possession  of 
the  nations  of  the  World  in  Jehovah's  name.  But  we 
mistake  Isaiah  if  we  think  it  is  any  abstract  doctrine 
of  providence  which  he  is  about  to  inculcate.  For 
him  God's  providence  has  in  the  meantime  but  one  end : 
the  preservation  of  a  remnant  of  the  holy  people. 
Afterwards  we  shall  find  him  expecting  besides,  the  con- 
version of  the  whole  World  to  faith  in  Israel's  God. 

The  World  in  Isaiah's  day  was  practically  Western 
Asia.  History  had  not  long  dawned  upon  Europe ;  over 
Western  Asia  it  was  still  noon.  Draw  a  line  from  the 
Caspian  to  the  mouth  of  the  Persian  Gulf;  between 
that  line  and  another  crossing  the  Levant  to  the  west  of 
Cyprus,  and  continuing  along  the  Libyan  border  of 
Egypt,  lay  the  highest  forms  of  religion  and  civilisation 
which  our  race  had  by  that  period  achieved.  This  was 
the  World  on  which  Isaiah  looked  out  from  Jerusalem, 
the  furthest  borders  of  which  he  has  described  in  his 
prophecies,  and  in  the  political  history  of  which  he 
illustrated  his  great  principles.     How  was  it  composed? 

There  were,  first  of  all,  at  either  end  of  it,  north-east 
ar^d  south-west,  the  two  great  empires  of  Assyria  and 
Egypt,  in  many  respects  wonderful  counterparts  of  each 
other.  No  one  will  understand  the  history  of  Palestine, 
who  has  not  grasped  its  geographical  position  relative 
to  these  similar  empires.  Syria,  shut  up  between  the 
Mediterranean  sea  and  the  Arabian  desert,  has  its  outlets 
north  and  south  into  two  great  river-plains,  each  of  them 
ending  in   a  delta.      Territories  of  that   kind   exert  a 


ISAIAH'S   WORLD  AND  ISRAEL'S   GOD.  93 

double  force  on  the  world  widi  which  they  are  connected, 
now  drawing  across  their  boundaries  the  hungry  races 
of  neighbouring  highlands  and  deserts,  and  again  sending 
them  forth,  compact  and  resistless  armies.  This  double 
action  summarises  the  histories  of  both  Egypt  and 
Assyria  from  the  earhest  times  to  the  period  which  we 
are  now  treating,  and  was  the  cause  of  the  constant 
circulation,  by  which,  as  the  Bible  bears  witness,  the  life 
of  Syria  was  stirred  from  the  Tower  of  Babel  downwards. 
Mesopotamia  and  the  Nile  valley  drew  races  as  beggars 
to  their  rich  pasture  grounds,  only  to  send  them  forth 
in  subsequent  centuries  as  conquerors.  The  century  of 
Isaiah  fell  in  a  period  of  forward  movement.  Assyria 
and  Egypt  were  afraid  to  leave  each  other  iji  peace ; 
and  the  wealth  of  Phoenicia,  grown  large  enough  to 
excite  their  cupidity,  lay  between  them.  In  each  of 
these  empires,  however,  there  was  something  to 
hamper  this  aggressive  impulse.  Neither  Assyria  nor 
Egypt  was  a  homogeneous  State.  The  valleys  of  the 
Euphrates  and  the  Nile  were,  each  of  them  the  home 
of  two  nations.  Beside  Assyria  lay  Babylonia,  once 
Assyria's  mistress,  and  now  of  all  the  Assyrian 
provinces  by  far  the  hardest  to  hold  in  subjection, 
although  it  lay  the  nearest  to  home.  In  Isaiah's  time, 
when  an  Assyrian  monarch  is  unable  to  come  into 
Palestine,  Babylon  is  generally  the  reason  ;  and  it  is  by 
intriguing  with  Babylon  that  a  king  of  Judah  attempts 
to  keep  Assyria  away  from  his  own  neighbourhood. 
But  Babylon  only  delayed  the  Assyrian  conquest. 
In  Egypt,  on  the  other  hand,  power  was  more  equally 
balanced  .between  the  hardier  people  up  the  Nile  and 
the  wealthier  people  down  the  Nile  —  between  the 
Ethiopians  and  the  Egyptians  proper.  It  was  the 
repeated   and   undecisive   contests  between  these  two 


94  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

diii'ng  the  whole  of   Isaiah's  day,   whicli   kept  Egypt 
from  being  an  effective  force  in  the  pohtics  of  Western 
Asia.       In   Isaiah's  day  no  Egyptian    army  advanced-' 
more  than   a  few  leagues  beyond   its  own  frontier. 

Next   in    this    world    of  Western    Asia    come    the 
Phoenicians.     We  may  say  that  they  connected  Egypt 
and  Assyria,  for  although  Phoenicia  proper  meant  only 
the  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  coast  between   Carmel 
and    the  bay   of  Antioch,  the    Phoenicians    had    large 
colonies  on  the  delta  of  the  Nile  and  trading  posts  upon 
the  Euphrates.     They  were  gathered  into  independent 
but  more  or  less  confederate  cities,  the  chief  of  them 
Tyre  and  Sidon  ;  which,  while  they  attempted  the  offen- 
sive only  in  trade,  were  by  their  wealth  and  maritime 
advantages  capable  of  offering  at  once  a  stronger  attrac- 
tion and  a  more  stubborn  resistance  to  the  Assyrian 
arms,    than    any  other  power  of  the  time.     Between 
Phoenicia  proper  and  the  mouths  of  the  Nile,  the  coast 
was  held  by  groups  of  Philistine  cities,  whose  nearness 
to  Egypt  rather  than  their  own  strength  was  the  source 
of  a  frequent  audacity  against  Assyria,  and  the  reason 
why  they  appear  in  the  history  of  this  period  oftener 
than  any  other  State  as  the  object  of  Assyrian  campaigns. 
Behind  Phoenicia  and  the  Philistines  lay  a  number  of 
inland  territories :  the  sister-States  of  Judahand  Northern 
Israel,  with  their  cousins  Edom,  Moab,  and  Aram  or 
Syria.    Of  which  Judah  and  Israel  were  together  about 
the  size  of  Wales ;  Edom  a  mountain  range  the  size  and 
shape  of  Cornwall;  Moab,  on  its  north,  a  broken  tableland, 
about  a  Devonshire ;  and  Aram,  or  Syria,  a  territory 
round  Damascus,   of  uncertain   size,   but  considerable 
enough    to  have  resisted  Assyria  for  a  hundred  and 
twenty  years.     Beyond  Aram,  again,  to  the  north,  lay 
the  smaller  State  of  Hamath,  in  the  mouth  of  the  pass 


ISAIAH'S   WORLD  AND  ISRAEL'S  GOD.  95 

between  the  Lebanons,  with  nothing  from  it  to  the 
Euphrates.  And  then,  hovering  upon  the  east  of  these 
settled  States,  were  a  variety  of  more  or  less  Nomadic 
Tribes,  whose  refuges  were  the  vast  deserts  of  which 
so  large  a  part  of  Western  Asia  consists. 

Here  was  a  world,  with  some  of  its  constituents 
wedged  pretty  firmly  by  mutual  pressure,  but  in  the 
main  broken  and  restless — a  political  surface  that  was 
always  changing.  The  whole  was  subject  to  the  move- 
ments of  the  two  empires  at  its  extremes.  One  of  them 
could  not  move  without  sending  a  thrill  through  to  the 
borders  of  the  other.  The  approximate  distances  were 
these : — from  Egypt's  border  to  Jerusalem,  about  one 
hundred  miles  ;  from  Jerusalem  to  Samaria,  forty-five ; 
from  Samaria  to  Damascus,  one  hundred  and  fifteen ;  from 
Damascus  to  Hamath,  one  hundred  and  thirty  ;  and  from 
Hamath  to  the  Euphrates,  one  hundred  ;  in  all  from  the 
border  of  Egypt  to  the  border  of  Assyria  four  hundred 
and  ninety  Enghsh  statute  miles.  The  main  line  of  war 
and  traffic,  coming  up  from  Egypt,  kept  the  coast 
to  the  plain  of  Esdraelon,  which  it  crossed  towards 
Damascus,  travelling  by  the  north  of  tlie  sea  of  GaHlee, 
Ihe  way  of  the  sea.  Northern  Israel  was  bound  to 
fall  an  early  prey  to  armies,  whose  easiest  path  thus 
traversed  her  richest  provinces.  Judah,  on  the  other 
hand,  occupied  a  position  so  elevated  and  apart,  that  it 
was  likely  to  be  the  last  that  either  Assyria  or  Egypt 
would  achieve  in  their  subjugation  of  the  States  between 
them. 

Thus,  then,  Western  Asia  spread  itself  out  in  Isaiah's 
day.  Let  us  take  one  more  rapid  glance  across  it. 
Assyria  to  the  north,  powerful  and  on  the  offensive,  but 
hampered  by  Babylon  ;  Egypt  on  the  south,  weakened 
and  in  reserve ;  all  the  cities  and  States  between  turn- 


96  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


ing  their  faces  desperately  northwards,  but  each  with 
an  ear  bent  back  for  the  promises  of  the  laggard  southern 
power,  and  occasionally  supported  by  its  subsidies ; 
Hamath,  their  advanced  guard  at  the  mouth  of  the 
pass  between  the  Lebanons,  looking  out  towards  the 
Euphrates ;  Tyre  and  Sidon  attractive  to  the  Assyrian 
king,  whose  policy  is  ultimately  commercial,  by  their 
wealth,  both  they  and  the  Philistine  cities  obstructing 
his  path  by  the  coast  to  his  great  rival  of  Egypt ;  Israel 
bulwarked  against  Assyria  by  Hamath  and  Damascus, 
but  in  danger,  as  soon  as  they  fall,  of  seeing  her  richest 
provinces  overrun  ;  Judah  unlikely  in  the  general  rest- 
lessness to  retain  her  hold  upon  Edom,  but  within  her 
own  borders  tolerably  secure,  neither  lying  in  the 
Assyrian's  path  to  Egypt,  nor  wealthy  enough  to  attract 
him  out  of  it ;  safe,  therefore,  in  the  neutrality  which 
Isaiah  ceaselessly  urges  her  to  preserve,  and  in  danger 
of  suction  into  the  whirlpool  of  the  approach  of  the  two 
empires  only  through  the  foolish  desire  of  her  rulers 
to  secure  an  utterly  unnecessary  alliance  with  the  one 
or  the  other  of  them. 

For  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  before  the  advent  of 
Isaiah,  the  annals  of  the  Assyrian  kings  record  perio- 
dical campaigns  against  the  cities  of  "  the  land  of  the 
west,"  but  these  isolated  incursions  were  followed  by  no 
permanent  results.  In  745,  however,  five  years  before 
King  Uzziah  died,  a  soldier  ascended  the  throne  of 
Assyria,  under  the  title  of  Tiglath-pileser  II.,*  who  was 
determined  to  achieve  the  conquest  of  the  whole  world 
and  its  organization  as  his  empire.  Where  his  armies 
came,  it  was  not  simply  to  chastise  or  demand  tribute, 


*  The  Pul  of  2  Kings  xv.  19  and  the  Tiglath-pileser  of  a  Kings  xvL 
arc  the  same. 


tSAlAirs  WORLD  AND  ISRAEL'S   COD.  97 

but  to  annex  countries,  carry  away  their  populations 
and  exploit  tlieir  resources.  It  was  no  longer  kings 
who  were  threatened ;  peoples  found  themselves  in 
danger  of  extinction.  This  terrible  purpose  of  the 
Assyrian  was  pursued  with  vast  means  and  the  utmost 
ferocity.  He  has  been  called  the  Roman  of  the  East, 
and  up  to  a  certain  degree  we  may  imagine  his  policy 
by  remembering  all  that  is  familiar  to  us  of  its  execu- 
tion by  Rome :  its  relentlessness,  impetus  and  myste- 
rious action  from  one  centre ;  the  discipline,  the  speed, 
the  strange  appearance,  of  his  armies.  But  there  was 
an  Oriental  savagery  about  Assyria,  from  which  Rome 
was  free.  The  Assyrian  kings  moved  in  the  power  of 
their  brutish  and  stormy  gods — gods  that  were  in  the 
shape  of  bulls  and  had  the  wings  as  of  the  tempest. 
The  annals  of  these  kings,  in  which  they  describe  their 
campaigns,  are  full  of  talk  about  trampling  down  their 
enemies  ;  about  showering  tempests  of  clubs  upon  them, 
and  raining  a  deluge  of  arrows  ;  about  overwhelming 
them,  and  sweeping  them  off  the  face  of  the  land,  and 
strewing  them  like  chaff  on  the  sea ;  about  chariots 
with  scythes,  and  wheels  clogged  with  blood;  about 
great  baskets  stuffed  with  the  salted  heads  of  their  foes. 
It  is  a  mixture  of  the  Roman  and  Red  Indian. 

Picture  the  effect  of  the  onward  movement  of  such  a 
force  upon  the  imaginations  and  policies  of  those 
little  States  that  clustered  round  Judah  and  Israel. 
Settling  their  own  immemorial  feuds,  they  sought 
alliance  with  one  another  against  this  common  foe. 
Tribes,  that  for  centuries  had  stained  their  borders 
with  one  another's  blood,  came  together  in  unions,  the 
only  reason  for  which  was  that  their  common  fear  had 
grown  stronger  than  their  mutual  hate.  Now  and  then 
a  king  would   be  found    unwilling   to    enter    such    an 

VOL.  I.  7 


9»  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


alliance  or  ecigcr  to  witliclravv  from  it,  in  the  hope  of 
securing  by  his  exceptional  conduct  the  favour  of 
the  Assyrian,  whom  he  sought  further  to  ingratiate 
by  Voluntary  tribute.  The  shifting  attitudes  of  the 
petty  kings  towards  Ass3'ria  bewilder  the  reader  of 
the  Assyrian  annals.  The  foes  of  one  year  are  the 
tributaries  of  the  next ;  the  State,  that  has  called  for 
help  this  campaign,  appears  as  the  rebel  of  that.  In 
742,  Uzziah  of  Judah  is  cursed  by  Tiglath-pileser  as 
an  arch-enemy ;  Samaria  and  Damascus  are  recorded 
as  faithful  tributaries.  Seven  years  later  Ahaz  of 
Judah  ofTcrs  tribute  to  the  Assyrian  king,  and  Damascus 
and  Samaria  are  invaded  by  the  Assyrian  armies. 
What  a  world  it  was,  and  what  politics  !  A  world  of 
petty  clans,  with  no  idea  of  a  common  humanity,  and 
with  no  motive  for  union  except  fear;  politics  without  a 
noble  thought  or  long  purpose  in  them,  the  politics  of 
peoples  at  bay — the  last  flicker  of  dying  nationalities, 
- — s/iiiiips  of  smoking  firebrands,  as  Isaiah  described 
two  of  them. 

When  we  turn  to  the  little  we  know  of  the  religions 
of  these  tribes,  we  find  nothing  to  arrest  their  rest- 
lessness or  broaden  their  thoughts.  These  nations 
had  their  religions,  and  called  on  their  gods,  but  their 
gods  were  made  in  their  own  image,  their  religion  was 
the  reflex  of  their  life.  Each  of  them  employed,  rather 
than  worshipped,  its  deity.  No  nation  believed  in  its 
god  except  as  one  among  many,  with  his  sovereignty 
limited  to  its  own  territory,  and  his  ability  to  help  it 
conditioned  by  the  power  of  the  other  gods,  against 
whose  peoples  he  was  fisjhting.  There  was  no  belief 
in  "Providence,"  no  idea  of  unity  or  of  progress  in 
history,  no  place  in  these  religions  for  the  great  world- 
force  that  was  advancing  upon  their  peo|  les. 


ISAIAH'S   WORLD  AND  ISRAEL'S  GOD.  99 

From  this  condemnation  we  cannot  except  the  people 
of  Jehovah.  It  is  undeniable  that  the  mass  of  them 
occupied  at  this  time  pretty  much  the  same  low  reli- 
gious level  as  their  neighbours.  We  have  already 
seen  (chap,  i.)  their  mean  estimate  of  what  God 
required  from  themselves ;  with  that  corresponded 
iheir  view  of  His  position  towards  the  world.  To  the 
majority  of  the  Israelites  their  God  was  but  one  out  of 
many,  with  His  own  battles  to  fight  and  have  fought 
for  Him,  a  Patron  sometimes  to  be  ashamed  of,  and  by- 
no  means  a  Saviour  in  whom  to  place  an  absolute 
trust.  When  Ahaz  is  beaten  by  Syria,  he  says : 
Because  the  gods  of  the  kings  of  Syria  helped  them,  there- 
fore will  I  sacrifice  to  them,  that  they  may  help  me 
(2  Chron.  xxviii.  23).  Religion  to  Ahaz  was  only 
another  kind  of  diplomacy.  He  was  not  a  fanatic, 
but  a  diplomat,  who  made  his  son  to  pass  through  the 
fire  to  Moloch,  and  burnt  incense  in  the  high  places 
and  on  the  hills,  and  under  every  green  tree.  He  was 
more  a  political  than  a  religious  eclectic,  who  brought 
back  the  pattern  of  the  Damascus  altar  to  Jerusalem. 
The  Temple,  in  which  Isaiah  saw  the  Lord  high  and 
lifted  up,  became  under  Ahaz,  and  by  the  help  of  the 
priesthood,  the  shelter  of  various  idols ;  in  every  corner 
of  Jerusalem  altars  were  erected  to  other  gods.  This 
religious  hospitality  was  the  outcome  neither  of 
imagination  nor  of  liberal  thought;  it  was  prompted 
only  by  political  fear.  Ahaz  has  been  mistaken  in  the 
same  way  as  Charles  I.  was— for  a  bigot,  and  one  who 
subjected  the  welfare  of  his  kingdom  to  a  superstitious 
regard  for  religion.  But  beneath  the  cloak  of  religious 
scrupulousness  and  false  reverence,*  there  was  in  Ahaz 
the  same  selfish  fear  for  the  safety  of  his  crown  and  his 

*  Isa.  vii.  12, 


60  THE  BOOK  OP  ISAIAH. 

dynasty,  as  those  who  best  knew  the  English  monarch 
tell  us,  was  the  real  cause  of  his  ceaseless  intrigue  and 
stupid  obstinacy. 

Now  that  we  have  surveyed  this  world,  its  politics  and 
its  religion,  we  can  estimate  the  strength  and  originality 
of  the  Hebrew  prophets.  Where  others  saw  the  con- 
flicts of  nations,  aided  by  deities  as  doubtfully  matched 
as  themselves,  they  perceived  all  things  working  to- 
gether by  the  will  of  one  supreme  God  and  serving  His 
ends  of  righteousness.  It  would  be  wrong  to  say,  that 
before  the  eighth  century  the  Hebrew  conception  of 
God  had  been  simply  that  of  a  national  deity,  for  this 
would  be  to  ignore  the  remarkable  emphasis  placed  by 
the  Hebrews  from  very  early  times  upon  Jehovah's 
righteousness.  But  till  the  eighth  century  the  horizon 
of  the  Hebrew  mind  had  been  the  border  of  their  terri- 
tory; the  historical  theatre  on  which  it  saw  God  working 
was  the  national  life.  Now,  however,  the  Hebrews 
were  drawn  into  the  world ;  they  felt  movements  of 
which  their  own  history  was  but  an  eddy ;  they  saw 
the  advance  of  forces  against  which  their  own  armies, 
though  inspired  by  Jehovah,  had  no  chance  of  material 
success.  The  perspective  was  entirely  changed  ; 
their  native  land  took  to  most  of  them  the  aspect  of  a 
petty  and  worthless  province,  their  God  the  rank  of  a 
mere  provincial  deity ;  they  refused  the  waters  of 
Shiloah,  tliat  go  softly,  and  rejoiced  in  the  glory  of  the 
king  of  Assyria,  the  king  of  the  great  River  and  the 
hosts  that  moved  with  the  strength  of  its  floods.  It 
was  at  this  moment  that  the  prophets  of  Israel  per- 
formed their  supreme  religious  service.  While  Ahaz 
and  the  mass  of  the  people  illustrated  the  impotence  of  ^y' 
the  popular  religion,  by  admitting  to  an  equal  place  in 
the  national  temple  the  gods  of  their  victorious  foes, 


ISAIAH'S   WORLD  AND  ISRAEL'S   GOD.  loi 

the  prophets  boldly  took  possession  of  the  whole  world 
in  the  name  of  Jehovah  of  hosts,  and  exalted  Him  to 
the  throne  of  the  supreme  Providence.  Now  they 
could  do  this  only  by  emphasizing  and  developing  the 
element  of  righteousness  in  the  old  conception  of  Him. 
This  attribute  of  Jehovah  took  absolute  possession  of 
the  prophets ;  and  in  the  strength  of  its  inspiration 
they  were  enabled,  at  a  time  when  it  would  have 
been  the  sheerest  folly  to  promise  Israel  victory 
against  a  foe  like  Assyria,  to  asseverate  that  even  that 
supreme  world-power  was  in  the  hand  of  Jehovah, 
and  that  He  must  be  trusted  to  lead  up  all  the  move- 
ments of  which  the  Assyrians  were  the  main  force  to 
the  ends  He  had  so' plainly  revealed  to  His  chosen 
Israel.  Even  before  Isaiah's  time  such  principles 
had  been  proclaimed  by  Amos  and  Hosea,  but  it  was 
Isaiah,  who  both  gave  to  them'  their  loftiest  expression, 
and  applied  them  with  the  utmost  detail  and  persistence 
to  the  practical  politics  of  Judah.  We  have  seen  him, 
in  the  preliminary  stages  of  his  ministry  under  Uzziah 
and  Jotham,  reaching  most  exalted  convictions  of  the 
righteousness  of  Jehovah,  as  contrasted  with  the 
people's  view  of  their  God's  "  nationalism."  But  we 
are  now  to  follow  him  boldly  applying  this  faith — won 
within  the  life  of  Judah,  won,  as  he  tells  us,  by  the 
personal  inspiration  of  Judah's  God — to  the  problems 
and  movements  of  the  whole  world  as  they  bear  upon 
Israel's  fate.  The  God,  who  is  supreme  in  Judah 
through  righteousness,  cannot  but  be  supreme  every- 
where else,  for  there  is  nothing  in  the  world  higher  than 
righteousness.  Isaiah's  faith  in  a  Divine  Providence 
is  a  close  corollary  to  his  faith  in  Jehovah's  righ- 
teousness ;  and  of  one  part  of  that  Providence  he 
had    already    received    conviction — A    remnant   shall 


I02  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


remain.  Ahaz  may  crowd  Jerusalem  with  foreign 
altars  and  idols,  so  as  to  be  able  to  say:  "We  have 
with  us,  on  our  side,  Moloch  and  Chemosh  and 
Rimmon  and  the  gods  of  Damascus  and  Assyria." 
Isaiah,  in  the  face  of  this  folly,  lifts  up  his  simple 
gospel :  "  Immanu-El.  We  have  with  us,  in  our  own 
Jehovah  of  hosts,  El,  the  one  supreme  God,  Ruler  of 
heaven  and  earth." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

KING  AND  MESSIAH;  PEOPLE  AND   CHURCH. 
Isaiah  vii.,  viii.,  ix.  i — 8. 

735—732  B.C. 

THIS  section  of  the  book  of  Isaiah  (vii. — ix.  f)  con- 
sists of  a  number  of  separate  prophecies  uttered 
during  a  period  of  at  least  three  years  :  735 — 732  b.c. 
By  735  Ahaz  had  ascended  the  throne ;  Tiglath- 
pileser  had  been  occupied  in  the  far  east  for  two  years. 
Taking  advantage  of  the  weakness  of  the  former  and  the 
distance  of  the  latter,  Rezin,  king  of  Damascus,  and 
Pekah,  king  of  Samaria,  planned  an  invasion  of  Judah. 
It  was  a  venture  they  would  not  have  dared  had  Uzziah 
been  alive.  While  Rezin  marched  down  the  east  of  the 
Jordan  and  overturned  the  Jewish  supremacy  in  Edom, 
Ptkah  threw  himself  into  Judah,  defeated  the  armies  of 
Ahaz  in  one  great  battle,  and  besieged  Jerusalem,  with 
the  object  of  deposing  Ahaz  and  setting  a  Syrian,  Ben- 
Tabeel,  in  his  stead.  Simultaneously  the  Philistines 
attacked  Judah  from  the  south-west.  The  motive  of 
the  confederates  was  in  all  probability  anger  with  Ahaz 
for  refusing  to  enter  with  them  into  a  Pan-Syrian 
alliance  against  Assyria.  In  his  distress  Ahaz  appealed 
to  Tigiath-pileser,  and  the  Assyrian  swiftly  responded. 
In  734 — it  must  have  been  less  than  a  year  since 
Ahaz  was  attacked — the  hosts  of  the  north  had  overrun 


104  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

Samaria  and  swept  as  far  south  as  the  cities  of  the 
PhiHstines.  Then,  withdrawing  his  troops  again, 
Tiglath-pileser  left  Hoshea  as  his  vassal  on  Pekah's 
throne,  and  sending  the  population  of  Israel  east  of  the 
Jordan  into  distant  captivity,  completed  a  two  years' 
siege  of  Damascus  (734 — 732)  by  its  capture.  At 
Damascus  Ahaz  met  the  conqueror,  and  having  paid 
him  tribute,  took  out  a  further  policy  of  insurance  in  the 
altar-pattern,  which  he  brought  back  with  him  to  Jeru- 
salem, Such  were  the  three  years,  whose  rapid  changes 
unfolded  themselves  in  parallel  with  these  prophecies  of 
Isaiah.  The  details  are  not  given  by  the  prophet,  but 
we  must  keep  in  touch  with  them  while  we  listen  to 
him.  Especially  must  we  remember  their  central  point, 
the  decision  of  Ahaz  to  call  in  the  help  of  Assyria,  a 
decision  which  affected  the  whole  course  of  politics  for 
the  next  thirty  years.  Some  of  the  oracles  of  this  section 
were  plainly  delivered  by  Isaiah  before  that  event,  and 
simply  seek  to  inspire  Ahaz  with  a  courage  which 
should  feel  Assyrian  help  to  be  needless ;  others,  again, 
imply  that  Ahaz  has  already  called  in  the  Assyrian  : 
they  taunt  him  with  hankering  after  foreign  strength, 
and  depict  the  woes  which  the  Assyrian  will  bring 
upon  the  land ;  while  others  (for  example,  the  passage 
IX.  I — 7)  mean  that  the  Assyrian  has  already  come, 
and  that  the  Galilean  provinces  of  Israel  have  been 
depopulated,  and  promise  a  Deliverer.  IF  we  do  not 
keep  in  mind  the  decision  of  Ahaz,  we  shall  not  under- 
stand these  seemingly  contradictory  utterances,  which 
it  thoroughly  explains.  Let  us  now  begin  at  the  begin- 
ning of  chapter  vii.  It  opens  with  a  bare  statement,  by 
way  of  title,  of  the  invasion  of  Judah  and  the  futile 
result ;  and  then  proceeds  to  tell  us  how  Isaiah  acted 
from  the  first  rumour  of  the  confederacy  onward. 


vii.— IX.,  8.1  KING,  AND  MESSIAH.  105 

I.  The  King  (chap.  vii.). 
And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  days  of  Ahaz,  the  son  of 
Jotham,  the  son  of  Uzziah,  king  ofjudah,  that  Rezin,  the 
king  of  Syria,  and  Pekah,  the  son  of  ReinaliaJi,  king  of 
Israel,  went  up  to  Jerusalem  to  war  against  it,  but  could 
not  prevail  against  it.  This  is  a  summary  of  the  whole 
adventure  and  issue  of  the  war,  given  by  way  of  intro- 
duction. The  narrative  proper  begins  in  verse  2,  with 
the  effect  of  the  first  news  of  the  league  upon  Ahaz  and 
his  people.  Their  hearts  were  moved,  like  the  trees  of 
the  forest  before  the  wind.  The  league  was  aimed  so 
evidently  against  the  two  things  most  essential  to  the 
national  existence  and  the  honour  of  Jehovah ;  the 
dynasty  of  David,  namely,  and  the  inviolability  of  Jeru- 
salem. Judah  had  frequently  before  suffered  the  loss  of 
her  territory ;  never  till  now  were  the  throne  and  city 
of  David  in  actual  peril.  But  that,  which  bent  both  king 
and  people  by  its  novel  terror,  was  the  test  Isaiah  ex- 
pected for  the  prophecies  he  had  already  uttered.  Taking 
with  him,  as  a  summary  of  them,  his  boy  with  the  name 
Shear-Jashub  —  A-reuiiiant-shall-return  —  Isaiah  faced 
Ahaz  and  his  court  in  the  midst  of  their  preparation  for 
the  siege.  They  were  examining — but  more  in  panic  than 
in  prudence — the  water  supply  of  the  city,  when  Isaiah 
delivered  to  them  a  message  from  the  Lord,  which  may 
be  paraphrased  as  follows  :  Take  heed  and  be  quiet,  keep 
your  eyes  open  and  your  heart  still ;  fear  not,  neither  be 
faint-hearted,  for  the  fierce  anger  of  Rczin  and  RemaliaK s 
son.  They  have  no  power  to  set  you  on  fire.  They  are 
but  stumps  of  expiring  firebrands,  alm^ost  burnt  out. 
While  you  wisely  look  after  your  water  supply,  do  so 
in  hope.  This  purpose  of  deposing  you  is  vain.  Thus 
saith  the  Lord  Jehovah  :  It  shall  not  stand,  neither  shall  if 
come  to  pass.     Of  whom  are  you  afraid  ?     Look  those 


I  of)  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

foes  of  yours  in  the  face.  The  head  of  Syria  is  Damascus, 
and  Damascus''  head  is  Rczin  :  is  he  worth  fearing  ? 
77?^  head  of  Ephraim  is  Samaria,  and  Samaria! s  head  is 
Rcnaliah's  son  :  is  he  worth  fearing  ?  Within  a  few 
years  they  will  certainly  be  destroyed.  But  whatever 
estimate  you  make  of  your  foes,  whatever  their  future 
may  be,  for  yourself  have  faith  in  God  ;  for  you  that 
is  the  essential  thing.  If  ye  will  not  believe,  surely  ye 
shall  not  be  established* 

This  paraphrase  seeks  to  bring  out  the  meaning 
of  a  passage  confessedly  obscure.  It  seems  as  if  we 
had  only  bits  of  Isaiah's  speech  to  Ahaz  and  must 
supply  the  gaps.  No  one  need  hesitate,  however,  to 
recognize  the  conspicuous  personal  qualities — the  com- 
bination of  political  sagacity  with  religious  fear,  of 
common-sense  and  courage  rooted  in  faith.  In  a  word, 
this  is  what  Isaiah  will  say  to  the  king,  clever  in  his 
alliances,  religious  and  secular,  and  busy  about  his 
material  defences  :  "Take  unto  you  the  shield  of  faith. 
You  have  lost  your  head  among  all  these  things.  Hold 
it  up  like  a  man  behind  that  shield ;  take  a  rational  view 
of  affairs.  Rate  your  enemies  at  their  proper  value. 
But  for  this  you  m.ust  believe  in  God.  Faith  in  Him  is 
the  essential  condition  of  a  calm  mind  and  a  rational 
appreciation  of  affairs." 

It  is,  no  doubt,  difficult  for  us  to  realize  that  the 
truth  which  Isaiah  thus  enforced  on  King  Ahaz — the 
government  of  the  world  and  human  history  by  one 
supreme  God — was  ever  a  truth  of  which  the  race  stood 
in  ignorance.  A  generation  like  ours  cannot  be  ex- 
pected to  put  its  mind  in  the  attitude  of  those  of  Isaiah's 

*  There  is  a  play  upon  words  here,  which  may  be  reproduced  in 
English  by  the  help  of  a  North-England  terip  :  If  ye  have  not  faith, 
ye  cannot  have  staith. 


vii.— ix.,  8.]  KING  AND  MESSIAH.  107 

contemporaries  who  believed  in  the  real  existence  of 
many  gods  with  limited  sovereignties.  To  us,  who  are 
full  of  the  instincts  of  Divine  Providence  and  of  the 
presence  in  history  of  law  and  progress,  it  is  extremely 
hard  even  to  admit  the  fact — far  less  fully  to  realize 
what  it  means — that  our  race  had  ever  to  receive  these 
truths  as  fresh  additions  to  their  stock  of  intellectual 
ideas.  Yet,  without  prejudice  to  the  claims  of  earlier 
prophets,  this  may  be  confidently  affirmed  :  that  Isaiah 
where  we  now  meet  him  stood  on  one  side  believing 
in  one  supreme  God,  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  and 
his  generation  stood  on  the  other  side,  believing  that 
there  were  many  gods.  Isaiah,  however,  does  not 
pose  as  the  discoverer  of  the  truth  he  preaches ;  he 
does  not  present  it  as  a  new  revelation,  nor  put  it  in 
a  formula.  He  takes  it  for  granted,  and  proceeds  to 
bring  its  moral  influence  to  bear.  He  will  infect  men 
with  his  own  utter  conviction  of  it,  in  order  that  he  may 
strengthen  their  character  and  guide  them  by  paths  of 
safety.  His  speech  to  Ahaz  is  an  exhibition  of  the 
moral  and  rational  effects  of  believing  in  Providence. 
Ahaz  is  a  sample  of  the  character  polytheism  pro- 
duced ;  the  state  of  mind  and  heart  to  which  Isaiah 
exhorts  him  is  that  induced  by  belief  in  one  righteous 
and  almighty  God.  We  can  make  the  contrast  clear  to 
ourselves  by  a  very  definite  figure. 

The  difference,  which  is  made  to  the  character  and 
habits  of  men  if  the  country  they  live  in  has  a  powerful 
government  or  not,  is  well  known.  If  there  be  no  such 
central  authority,  it  is  a  case  of  every  man's  hand 
against  his  neighbour.  Men  walk  armed  to  the  teeth. 
A  constant  attitude  of  fear  and  suspicion  warps  the 
whole  nature.  The  passions  are  excited  and  mag- 
nified ;    the  intelHgence   and  judgement   are   dwarfed. 


io8  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

Just  the  same  after  its  kind  is  life  to  the  man  or  tribe, 
who  believe,  that  the  world  in  which  they  dwell  and  the 
life  they  share  with  others  have  no  central  authority. 
They  walk  armed  with  prejudices,  superstitions  and 
selfishnesses.  They  create,  like  Ahaz,  their  own  pro- 
vidences, and  still,  like  him,  feel  insecure.  Everything 
is  exaggerated  by  them  ;  in  each  evil  there  lurks  to 
their  imagmation  unlimited  hostility.  They  are  without 
breadth  of  view  or  length  of  patience.  But  let  men 
believe  that  life  has  a  central  authority,  that  God  is 
supreme,  and  they  will  fling  their  prejudices  and  super- 
stitions to  the  winds,  now  no  more  needed  than  the  anti- 
quated fortresses  and  weapons  by  which  our  forefathers, 
in  days  when  the  government  was  weak,  were  forced 
to  defend  their  private  interests.  When  we  know  that 
God  reigns,  how  quiet  and  free  it  makes  us  !  When 
things  and  men  are  part  of  His  scheme  and  working 
out  His  ends,  when  we  understand  that  they  are  not 
monsters  but  ministers,  how  reasonably  we  can  look  at 
them  !  Were  we  afraid  of  Syria  and  Ephraim  ?  Why, 
the  head  of  Syria  is  this  fellow  Rezin,  the  head  of 
Ephraim  this  son  of  Remaliah  !  They  cannot  last  long ; 
God's  engine  stands  behind  to  smite  them.  By  the 
reasonable  government  of  God,  let  us  be  reasonable  ! 
Let  us  take  heed  and  be  quiet.  Have  faith  in  God,  and  to 
faith  will  come  her  proper  consequent  of  commonsense. 
For  the  higher  a  man  looks,  the  farther  he  sees  :  to 
us  that  is  the  practical  lesson  of  these  first  nine  verses 
of  the  seventh  chapter.  The  very  gesture  of  faith 
bestows  upon  the  mind  a  breadth  of  view.  The  man, 
who  lifts  his  face  to  God  in  heaven,  is  he  whose  eyes 
sweep  simultaneously  the  farthest  prospect  of  earth, 
and  bring  to  him  a  sense  of  the  proportion  of  things. 
Ab;az,  facing  his  nearest  enemies,  does  not  see  over  their 


;.]  KING  AND  MESSIAH.  109 


heads,  and  in  his  consternation  at  their  appearance  pre- 
pares to  embark  upon  any  pohcy  that  suggests  itself, 
even  though  it  be  so  rash  as  the  summoning  of  the 
Assyrian.  Isaiah,  on  the  other  hand,  with  his  vision 
fixed  on  God  as  the  Governor  of  the  world,  is  enabled 
to  overlook  the  dust  that  darkens  Judah's  frontier,  to 
see  behind  it  the  inevitable  advance  of  the  Assyrians, 
and  to  be  assured  that,  whether  Ahaz  calls  them  to  his 
quarrel  or  no,  they  will  very  soon  of  their  own  motion 
overwhelm  both  of  his  enemies.  From  these  two  smoking 
firebrands  there  is  then  no  real  danger.  But  from  the 
Assyrian,  if  once  Judah  entangle  herself  in  his  toils, 
there  is  the  most  extreme  danger.  Isaiah's  advice  is 
therefore  not  mere  religious  quietism ;  it  is  prudent 
policy.  It  is  the  best  political  advice  that  could  have 
been  offered  at  that  crisis,  as  we  have  already  been 
able  to  gather  from  a  survey  of  the  geographical 
and  political  dispositions  of  Western  Asia,*  apart  alto- 
gether from  religious  considerations.  But  to  Isaiah 
the  calmness  requisite  for  this  sagacity  sprang  from  his 
faith.  Mr.  Bagehot  might  have  appealed  to  Isaiah's 
whole  policy  in  illustration  of  what  he  has  so  well 
described  as  the  military  and  political  benefits  of 
religion.  Monotheism  is  of  advantage  to  men  not  only 
by  reason  of  "the  high  concentration  of  steady  feeling" 
which  it  produces,  but  also  for  the  mental  calmness  and 
sagacity,  which  surely  spring  from  a  pure  and  vivid 
conviction  that  the  Lord  reigneth.f 

*  Page  96. 

f  Physics  and  Politics  (International  Scientific  Series),  pp.  75 
if.  One  of  the  finest  modern  illustrations  of  the  connection  be- 
tween faith  and  common-sense  is  found  in  the  Letters  of  General 
Gordon  to  His  Sister.  Gordon's  coolness  in  face  of  the  slave  trade, 
the  just  survey  he  makes  of  it,  and  the  sensible  advice  which 
he  gives  about  meeting  it  stand  well  in  contrast  to  the  haste  and  rash 


lib  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

One  other  thing  it  is  well  we  should  emphasize, 
before  we  pass  from  Isaiali's  speech  to  Ahaz.  Nothing 
can  be  plainer  than  that  Isaiah,  though  advocating  so 
absolutely  a  quiescent  belief  in  God,  is  no  fatalist. 
Now  other  prophets  there  have  been,  insisting  just 
as  absolutely  as  Isaiah  upon  resignation  to  God  the 
supreme,  and  the  evident  practical  effect  of  their 
doctrine  of  the  Divine  sovereignty  has  been  to 
make  their  followers,  not  shrewd  political  observers, 
but  blind  and  apathetic  fatalists.  The  difference 
between  them  and  Isaiah  has  lain  in  the  kind  of 
character,  which  they  and  he  have  respectively  at- 
tributed to  the  Deity,  before  exalting  Him  to  the 
throne  of  absolute  power  and  resigning  themselves 
to  His  will.  Isaiah,  though  as  disciplined  a  believer 
in  God's  sovereignt}^  and  man's  duty  of  obedience 
as  any  prophet  that  ever  preached  these  doctrines, 
was  preserved  from  the  fatalism  to  which  they  so 
often  lead  by  the  conviction  he  had  previously 
received  of  God's  righteousness.  Fatalism  means 
resignation  to  fate,  and  fate  means  an  omnipotence 
either  without  character,  or  (which  is  the  same  thing) 
of  whose  character  we  are  ignorant.  Fate  is  God 
minus  character,  and  fatalism  is  the  characterless  con- 
dition to  which  belief  in  such  a  God  reduces  man. 
History    presents    it    to    our    view    amid    the    most 

proposals  of  philanthropists  at  home,  and  are  evidently  due  to  his 
conviction  that  the  slave  trade,  like  everything  else  in  the  world,  is  in 
the  hands  of  God,  and  so  may  be  calmly  studied  and  wisely  check- 
mated. Gordon's  letters  make  \ery  clear  how  much  of  his  shrewdness 
in  dealing  with  men  was  due  to  the  same  source.  It  is  instructive 
to  observe  throughout,  how  his  complete  resignation  to  the  will  of  God 
and  his  perfect  obedience  delivered  him  from  prejudices  and  partialities, 
from  distractions  and  desires,  that  make  sober  judgement  impossible 
in  other  men. 


vii.-ix.,  S.]  KING  AND  MESSIAH.  ill 

diverse  surroundings.  The  Greek  mind,  so  free 
and  sunny,  was  bewildered  and  benumbed  by  belief 
in  an  inscrutable  Nemesis,  In  the  East  how  fre- 
quently is  a  temper  of  apathy  or  despair  bred  in 
men,  to  whom  God  is  nothing  but  a  despot !  Even 
within  Christianity  we  have  had  fanatics,  so  inor- 
dinately possessed  with  belief  in  God's  sovereignty 
of  election,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  Divine 
truths,  as  to  profess  themselves,  with  impious 
audacity,  willing  to  be  damned  for  His  glory.  Such 
instances  are  enough  to  prove  to  us  the  extreme 
danger  of  making  the  sovereignty  of  God  the  first 
article  of  our  creed.  It  is  not  safe  for  men  to 
exalt  a  deity  to  the  throne  of  the  supreme  providence, 
till  they  are  certified  of  his  character.  The  vision 
of  mere  power  intoxicates  and  brutalizes,  no  less 
when  it  is  hallowed  by  the  name  of  religion,  than 
when,  as  in  modern  materialism,  it  is  blindly  inter- 
preted as  physical  force.  Only  the  people  who  have 
first  learned  to  know  their  Deity  intimately  in  the 
private  matters  of  life,  where  heart  touches  heart, 
and  the  delicate  arguments  of  conscience  are  not 
overborne  by  the  presence  of  vast  natural  forces 
or  the  intricate  movements  of  the  world's  history, 
can  be  trusted  afterwards  to  enter  these  larger 
theatres  of  religion,  without  risk  of  losing  their 
faith,    their   sensibility   or   their   conscience. 

The  whole  course  of  revelation  has  been  bent 
upon  this  :  to  render  men  familiarly  and  experiment- 
ally acquainted  with  the  character  of  God,  before 
laying  upon  them  the  duty  of  homage  to  His  creative 
power  or  submission  to  His  will.  In  the  Old 
Testament  God  is  the  Friend,  the  Guide,  the  Redeemer 
of   men,  or  ever  He  is  their  Monarch  and  Lawgiver. 


tl2  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

The  Divine  name  which  the  Hebrew  sees  excellent 
tJiroiigh  all  the  earth  is  the  name  that  he  has  learned  to 
know  at  home  as  Jehovah,  our  Lord  (Ps.  viii.).  Jehovah 
trains  His  people  to  trust  His  personal  troth  and  loving- 
kindness  within  their  own  courts,  before  He  tests  their 
allegiance  and  discipline  upon  the  high  places  of  the 
world.  And  when,  amid  the  strange  terrors  of  these 
and  the  novel  magnitudes  with  which  Israel,  facing 
the  world,  had  to  reckon,  the  people  lost  their  presence 
of  mind,  His  elegy  over  them  was,  My  people  are 
destroyed  for  lack  of  knowledge.  Even  when  their 
temple  is  full  and  their  sacrifices  of  homage  to  His 
power  most  frequent,  it  is  still  their  want  of  moral 
acquaintance  with  Himself  of  which  He  complains : 
Israel  doth  not  know;  My  people  doth  not  consider. 
What  else  was  the  tragedy  in  which  Jewish  history 
closed,  than  just  the  failure  to  perceive  this  lesson  :  that 
to  have  and  to  communicate  the  knowledge  of  the 
Alm.ighty's  character  is  of  infinitely  more  value  than 
the  attempt  to  vindicate  in  any  outward  fashion 
Jehovah's  supremacy  over  the  world  ?  This  latter,  this 
forlorn,  hope  was  what  Israel  exhausted  the  evening  f 
their  day  in  attempting.  The  former — to  communicate 
to  the  lives  and  philosophies  of  mankind  a  knowledge  of 
the  Divine  heart  and  will,  gained  throughout  a  history 
of  unique  grace  and  miracle — was  the  destiny  which 
they  resigned  to  the  followers  of  the  crucified 
Messiah. 

For  under  the  New  Testament  this  also  is  the 
method  of  revelation.  What  our  King  desires  be- 
fore He  ascends  the  throne  of  the  world  is  that  the 
world  should  know  Him  ;  and  so  He  comes  down 
among  us,  to  be  heard,  and  seen,  and  handled  of  us, 
that  our  hearts  may  learn   His  heart  and  know  His 


vii.— ix.,  8.1  KING   AND  MESSIAH.  113 

love,  unbewildered  by  His  majesty.  And  for  our  part, 
w  hen  we  ascribe  to  our  King  the  glory  and  the  dominion, 
it  is  as  unto  Him  that  loved  us  and  washed  us  from  our 
sins  in  His  blood.  For  the  chief  thing  for  individuals, 
as  for  nations,  is  not  to  believe  that  God  reigneth  so 
much  as  to  know  what  kind  of  God  He  is  who 
reigneth. 


But  Ahaz  would  not -be  persuaded.  He  had  a  policy 
of  his  own,  and  v^'as  determined  to  pursue  it.  He 
insisted  on  appealing  to  Assyria.  Before  he  did  so, 
Isaiah  made  one  more  attempt  on  his  obduracy. 
With  a  vehemence,  which  reveals  how  critical  he  felt 
the  king's  decision  to  be,  the  prophet  returned  as  if 
this  time  the  very  voice  of  Jehovah.  And  Jehovah 
spake  to  Ahaz,  saying,  Ask  thee  a  sign  of  Jehovah  thy 
God ;  ask  it  either  in  Sheol  below  or  rn  the  height 
xbove.  But  Ahaz  said,  I  will  not  ask,  neither  will  I 
tempt  the  Lord. 

Isaiah's  offer  of  a  sign  was  one  which  the  prophets 
of  Israel  used  to  make  when  some  crisis  demanded  the 
immediate  acceptance  of  their  word  by  men,  and  men 
were  more  than  usually  hard  to  convince — a  miracle 
such  as  the  thunder  that  Samuel  called  out  of  a  clear 
sky  to  impress  Israel  with  God's  opinion  of  their  folly 
in  asking  for  a  king;*  or  as  the  rending  of  the  altar 
which  the  man  of  God  brought  to  pass  to  convict  the 
sullen  Jeroboam ;  f  or  as  the  regress  of  the  shadow 
on  the  sun-dial,  which  Isaiah  himself  gave  in  assurance 
of  recovery  to  the  sick  Hezekiah.  J  Such  signs  are 
offered     only    to    weak    or    prejudiced    persons.     The 

*   I  Sam.  xii.  17.  f  I  Kings  xiii.  3.  J  Chap,  xxxviii. 

VOL.  I.  8 


114  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

most  real  faith,  as  Isaiah  himself  tells  us,  is  unforced, 
the  purest  natures  those  which  need  no  signs  and 
wonders.  But  there  are  certain  crises  at  which  faith 
must  be  immediately  forced,  and  Ahaz  stood  now  at 
such  a  crisis  ;  and  there  are  certain  characters  who, 
unable  to  read  a  writ  from  the  court  of  conscience  and 
reason,  must  be  served  with  one  from  a  court — even 
though  it  be  inferior — whose  language  they  under- 
stand; and  Ahaz  was  such  a  character,  Isaiah  knew 
his  man,  and  prepared  a  pretty  dilemma  for  him.  By 
offering  him  whatever  sign  he  chose  to  ask,  Isaiah 
knew  that  the  king  would  be  committed  before  his 
own  honour  and  the  public  conscience  to  refrain  from 
calling  in  the  Assyrians,  and  so  Judah  would  be 
saved ;  or  if  the  king  refused  the  sign,  the  refusal 
would  unmiask  him.  Ahaz  refused,  and  at  once  Isaiah 
denounced  him  and  all  his  house.  They  were  mere  shuf- 
flers, playing  fast  and  loose  with  God  as  well  as  men. 
Hear  ye  now,  O  house  of  David.  Is  it  a  small  thing  for 
you  to  weary  men,  that  ye  must  weary  my  God  also  ? 
You  have  evaded  God ;  therefore  God  Himself  will 
take  you  in  hand  :  the  Lord  Himself  shall  give  you  a 
sign. 

In  order  to  follow  intelligently  the  rest  of  Isaiah's 
address,  we  must  clearly  understand  how  the  sign  which 
he  now  promises  differs  in  nature  from  the  sign  he  had 
implored  Ahaz  to  select,  of  whatever  sort  he  may  have 
expected  that  selection  to  be.  The  king's  determina- 
tion to  call  in  Assyria  has  come  between.  Therefore, 
while  the  sign  Isaiah  first  offered  upon  the  spot  was 
intended  for  an  immediate  pledge  that  God  would 
establish  Ahaz,  if  only  he  did  not  appeal  to  the 
foreigner,  the  sign  Isaiah  now  offers  shall  come  as  a 
future  proof  of  how  criminal  and  disastrous  the  appeal 


vii.-ix.,  8.]  KING  AND  MESSIAH.  1 15 

to  the  foreigner  has  been.  The  first  sign  would  have 
been  an  earnest  of  salvation ;  the  second  is  to  be  an 
exposure  of  the  fatal  evil  of  Ahaz's  choice.  The  first 
would  have  given  some  assurance  of  the  swift  over- 
throw of  Ephraim  and  Syria ;  the  second  shall  be 
some  painful  illustration  of  the  fact  that  not  only  Syria 
and  Ephraim,  but  Judah  herself,  shall  be  overwhelmed 
by  the  advance  of  the  northern  power.  This  second 
sign  is  one,  therefore,  which  only  time  can  bring 
»"ound.     Isaiah  identifies  it  with  a  life  not  yet  born. 

A  Child,  he  says,  shall  shortly  be  born  to  whom  his 
mother  shall  give  the  name  Immanu-El — God-with-iis. 
By  the  time  this  Child  comes  to  years  of  discretion,  he 
shall  eat  butter  and  honey.  Isaiah  then  explains  the 
riddle.  He  does  not,  however,  explain  who  the  mother 
is,  having  described  her  vaguely  as  a  or  the  young  woman 
of  marriageable  age;  for  that  is  not  necessary  to  the 
sign,  which  is  to  consist  in  the  Child's  own  experience. 
To  this  latter  he  limits  his  explanation.  Butter  and 
honey  are  the  food  of  privation,  the  food  of  a  people, 
whose  land,  depopulated  by  the  enemy,  has  been  turned 
into  pasture.  Before  this  Child  shall  arrive  at  years  of 
discretion  not  only  shall  Syria  and  Ephraim  be  laid 
waste,  but  the  Lord  Himself  will  have  laid  waste 
Judah.  Jehovah  shall  bring  upon  thee,  and  upon  thy 
people  and  upon  thy  father's  house  days,  that  have  not 
come,  from  the  day  that  Ephraim  departed  from  fudah  ; 
even  the  king  of  Assyria.  Nothing  more  is  said  of 
Immanuel,  but  the  rest  of  the  chapter  is  taken  up  with 
the  details  of  Judah's  devastation. 

Now  this  sign  and  its  explanation  would  have  pre- 
sented little  difficulty  but  for  the  name  of  the  Child — 
Immanuel.  Erase  that,  and  the  passage  reads  forcibly 
enough.     Before  a  certain  Child,  whose  birth  is  vaguely 


n6  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


but  sol  rnnly  intimated  in  the  near  future,  shall  have 
come  t'  years  of  discretion,  the  results  of  the  choice 
of  Aha^  shall  be  manifest.  Judah  shall  be  devastated, 
and  her  people  have  sunk  to  the  most  rudimentary 
means  of  living.  All  this  is  plain.  It  is  a  form  which 
Isaiah  used  more  than  once  to  measure  the  near 
future.  And  in  other  literatures,  too,  we  have  felt 
the  pathos  of  realizing  the  future  results  of  crime  and 
the  k  ngth  to  which  disaster  hngers,  by  their  effect 
upon  the  lives  of  another  generation  : — 

"The  child  that  is  unborn  shall  rue 
The  hunting  of  that  day  !  " 

But  why  call  the  Child  Immanuel  ?  The  name  is 
evidently  part  of  the  sign,  and  has  to  be  explained  in 
connection  with  it.  Why  call  a  Child  God-ivith-tts  who 
is  not  going  to  act  greatly  or  to  be  highly  honoured, 
who  is  only  going  to  suffer,  for  whom  to  come  to 
years  of  intelligence  shall  only  be  to  come  to  a  sense 
of  his  country's  disaster  and  his  people's  poverty  ? 
This  Child  who  is  used  so  pathetically  to  measure  the 
flow  of  time  and  the  return  of  its  revenges,  about 
whom  we  are  told  neither  how  he  shall  behave  him- 
self in  the  period  of  privation,  nor  whether  he  shall 
survive  it — why  is  he  called  Immanuel  ?  or  why,  being 
called  Immanuel,  has  he  so  sordid  a  fate  to  contrast 
with  so  splendid  a  name  ? 

V  'It  seems  to  the  present  expositor  quite  impossible 
to  dissociate  so  solemn  an  announcement  by  Jehovah  to 
the  house  of  David  of  the  birth  of  a  Child,  so  highly 
named,  from  that  expectation  of  the  coming  of  a 
glorious  Prince  which  was  current  in  this  royal  family 
since  the  days  of  its  founder.  Mysterious  and  abrupt 
as  the  intimation  of  Immanuel's  birth  may  seem  to  us 


vii.— ix.,  8.]  A7A'(7  AND  MESSIAH.  117 

at  this  juncture,  we  cannot  forget  that  it  fell  from 
Isaiah's  lips  on  hearts  which  cherished  as  tlieir  dearest 
hope  the  appearance  of  a  glorious  descendant  of  David, 
and  were  just  now  the  more  sensitive  to  this  hope  that 
both  David's  city  and  David's  dynasty  were  in  peril. 
Could  Ahaz  possibly  understand  by  Immanucl  any 
other  child  than  that  Prince  whose  coming  was  the 
inalienable  hope  of  his  house  ?  But  if  we  are  right  in 
supposing  that  Ahaz  made  this  identification,  or  had 
even  the  dimmest  presage  of  it,  then  we  understand 
the  full  force  of  the  sign.  Ahaz  by  his  unbelief  had 
not  only  disestablished  himself  (ver.  9) :  he  had 
mortgaged  the  hope  of  Israel.  In  the  flood  of  disaster, 
which  his  fatal  resolution  would  bring  upon  the  land, 
it  mattered  little  what  was  to  happen  to  himself. 
Isaiah  does  not  trouble  now  to  mention  any  penalty 
for  Ahaz.  But  his  resolve's  exceeding  pregnancy 
of  peril  is  borne  home  to  the  king  by  the  assurance 
that  it  will  devastate  all  the  golden  future,  and  must 
disinherit  the  promised  King.  The  Child,  who  is 
Israel's  hope,  is  born;  he  receives  the  Divine  name, 
and  that  is  all  of  salvation  or  glory  suggested.  He 
grows  up  not  to  a  throne  or  the  majesty  which  the 
seventy-second  Psalm  pictures — the  offerings  of  Sheba's 
and  Seba's  kings,  the  corn  of  his  land  shaking  like 
the  fruit  of  Lebanon,  while  they  of  the  city  flourish 
like  the  grass  of  the  earth — but  to  the  food  of  priva- 
tion, to  the  sight  of  his  country  razed  by  his 
enemies  into  one  vast  common  fit  onl}'  for  pasture, 
to  loneliness  and  suffering.  Amid  the  general  desola- 
tion his  figure  vanishes  from  our  sight,  and  only  his 
name  remains  to  haunt,  with  its  infinite  melancholy  of 
what  might  have  been,  the  thorn-choked  vineyards  and 
grass-grown  courts  of  Judah. 


Il8  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

But  even  if  it  were  to  prove  too  fine  a  point,  to  identify 
Immanuel  with  the  pr(Ji^sed  Messiah  of  David's  house, 
and  we  had  to  fall  back  on  some  vaguer  theory  of  him, 
finding  him  to  be  a  personification, — either  a  representa- 
tive of  the  coming  generation  of  God's  people,  or  a  type 
of  the  promised  to-morrow, — the  moral  effect  o^kp  sign 
would  remain  the  same  ;  and  it  is  with  this  alone  th^we 
have  here  to  do.  Be  this  an  individual,  or  a  generation, 
or  an  age, — by  the  Name  bestowed  upon  it,  it  was  to 
have  been  a  glorious,  God-inhabited  age,  feneration,  or 
individual,  and  Ahaz  has  prematurely  spoiled  everything 
about  it  but  the  Name.  The  future  shall  be  like  a  boy 
cursed  by  his  fathers,  brought  into  the  world  with 
glorious  rights  that  are  stamped  in  his  title,  but  only 
to  find  his  kingdom  and  estates  no  longer  in  existence, 
and  all  the  circumstances  dissipated,  in  which  he  m.ight 
have  realized  the  glorious  meaning  of  his  name.  Type 
of  innocent  suffering,  he  is  born  to  an  empty  title, 
his  name  the  vestige  of  a  great  opportunity,  the 
ironical  monument  of  an  irreparable  crime. 

If  Ahaz  had  any  conscience  left,  we  can  imagine  the 
effect  of  this  upon  him.  To  be  punished  for  sin  in 
one's  own  body  and  fortune,  this  is  sore  enough  ;  but 
to  see  heaven  itself  blackened  and  all  the  gracious 
future  frustrate,  this  is  unspeakably  terrible. 

Ahaz  is  thus  the  Judas  of  the  Old  Testament,  if  that 
conception  of  Judas'  character  be  the  right  one  which 
makes  his  wilful  desire  to  bring  about  the  kingdom  of 
God  in  his  own  violent  fashion  the  motive  of  his  betrayal 
of  Jesus.  Of  his  own  obduracy  Ahaz  has  betrayed  the 
Messiah  and  Deliverer  of  his  people.  The  assurance  of 
this  betrayal  is  the  sign  of  his  obduracy,  a  signal  and 
terrible  proof  of  his  irretrievable  sin  in  calling  upon  the 
Assyrians.     The  king  has  been  found  wanting. 


vii-ix,8.]  PEOPLE  AND   CHURCH.  119 

C«^I.  The  PEOPLK^^ap.  viii.). 

The  king  has  been  founc^^Piting ;  but  Isaiah  will 
appeal  to  the  people.  Chap.  viii.  is  a  collection  of 
addresses  to  them,  as  chap.  vii.  was  an  expostulation 
with  their  sovereign.  The  two  chapters  are  contem- 
porar;^  In  chap.  viii.  ver.  I,  the  narrative  goes 
baqt  upon  itself,  and  returns  to  the  situation  as  it 
was  before  Ahaz  made  his  final  resolution  of  reliance 
on  Assyria.  Vv.  i — 4  of  chap.  viii.  imply  that  the 
Assyrian  has  not  yet  been  summoned  by  Ahaz  to  his 
assistance,  and  therefore  run  parallel  to  chap.  vii. 
vv.  3 — 9 ;  but  chap.  viii.  ver.  5  and  following  verses 
sketch  the  evils  that  are  to  come  upon  Jud&.h  and 
Israel,  consequent  upon  the  arrival  of  the  Assyrians 
in  Palestine,  in  answer  to  the  appeal  of  Ahaz.  These 
evils  for  land  and  nation  are  threatened  as  absolutely 
to  the  people,  as  they  had  been  to  the  king.  And  then 
the  people  are  thrown  over  (viii.  14),  as  the  king 
had  been  ;  and  Isaiah  limits  himself  to  his  disciples 
(ver.   16)— the  remnant  that  was  foretold  in  chap.  vi. 

This  appeal  from  monarch  to  people  is  one  of  the 
most  characteristic  features  of  Isaiah's  ministry.  What- 
ever be  the  matter  committed  to  him,  Isaiah  is  not 
allowed  to  rest  till  he  has  brought  it  home  to  the 
popular  conscience  ;  and  however  much  he  may  be 
able  to  charge  national  disaster  upon  the  folly  of 
politicians  or  the  obduracy  of  a  king,  it  is  the  people 
whom  he  holds  ultimately  responsible.  The  statesman, 
according  to  Isaiak,  cannot  rise  far  above  the  level  of 
his  generation ;  the  people  set  the  fashion  to  their 
most  autocratic  rulers.  This  instinct  for  the  popular 
conscience,  this  belief  in  the  moral  solidarity  of  a  nation 
and  their  governors,  was  the  motive  of  the  most 
picturesque  passages  in    Isaiah's    career,   and  inspired 


THE  BOOK   OF  ISA! All. 


some  of  the  keenest  epigrams  in  which  he  conveyed  the 
Divine  truth.  We  have  here  a  case  in  illustration. 
Isaiah  had  met  Ahaz  and  his  court  at  the  conduit  of 
the  upper  pool,  in  the  highway  of  the  fuller's  field, 
preparing  for  the  expected  siege  of  the  city,  and  had 
delivered  to  them  the  Lord's  message  not  to  fear,  for  that 
Syria-Ephraim  would  certainly  be  destroyed.  But  that 
was  not  enough.  It  was  now  laid  upon  the  prophet  to 
make  public  and  popular  advertisement  of  the  same  truth. 

Isaiah  was  told  to  take  a  large,  smooth  board,  and 
write  thereon  in  the  character  used  by  the  common 
people — with  the  pen  of  a  man — -as  if  it  were  the 
title  to  a  prophecy,  the  compound  word  "  Maher-shalal- 
hash-baz."  This  was  not  only  an  intelligibly  written,  but 
a  significantly  sonorous,  word — one  of  those  popular 
cries  in  which  the  liveliest  sensations  are  struck  forth 
by  the  crowded,  clashing  letters,  full  to  the  dullest 
ears  of  rumours  of  war  :  spccd-spoil-hurry-pre /.  The 
interpretation  of  it  was  postponed,  the  prophec  mean- 
time taking  two  faithful  witnesses  to  its  publication. 
In  a  little  a  son  was  born  to  Isaiah,  and  to  this  child  he 
transferred  the  noisy  name.  Then  its  explanation  was 
given.  The  double  word  was  the  alarm  of  a  couple  of 
invasions.  Before  the  boy  shall  have  knowledge  to  cry, 
My  father,  my  mother,  the  riches  of  Damascus  and  the 
spoil  of  Samaria  shall  be  carried  away  before  the  king 
of  Assyria.  So  far  nothing  was  told  the  people  that 
had  not  been  told  their  king ;  only  the  time  of  the 
overthrow  of  their  two  enemies  was  fixed  with  greater 
precision.  At  the  most  in  a  year,  Damascus  and 
Samaria  would  have  fallen.  The  ground  was  already 
vibrating  to  the  footfall  of  the  northern  hosts. 

The  rapid  political  changes,  which  ensued  in  Palestine, 
are  reflected  on  the  broken  surface  of  this  eighth  chapter. 


vii.— ix.,  8.]  PEOPLE  AND   CHURCH.  Hi 

We  shall  not  understand  these  abrupt  and  dislocated 
oracles,  uttered  at  short  intervals  during  the  two  years 
of  the  Assyrian  campaign,  unless  we  realize  that  northern 
shadow  passing  and  repassing  over  Judah  and  Israel^ 
and  the  quick  alternations  of  pride  and  penitence  in  the 
peoples  beneath  it.  We  need  not  try  to  thread  the 
verses  on  any  line  of  thought.  Logical  connection 
among  them  there  is  none.  Let  us  at  once  get  down 
into  the  currents  of  popular  feeling,  in  which  Isaiah, 
having  left  Ahaz,  is  now  labouring,  and  casting  forth 
these  cries. 

It  is  a  period  of  powerful  currents,  a  people  wholly 
in  drift,  and  the  strongest  man  of  them  arrested  only 
by  a  firm  pressure  of  the  Lord's  hand.  For  Jehovah 
spake  tints  to  nie  with  a  strong  hand,  and  instructed  me, 
that  I  shoiihi  not  walk  in  the  ivay  of  this  people.  The 
character  of  the  popular  movement,  the  way  of  this 
people,  which  nearly  lifted  Isaiah  off  his  feet,  is  evident. 
It  is  that  into  which  every  nation  drifts,  who  have  just 
been  loosened  from  a  primitive  faith  in  God,  and  by  fear 
or  ambition  have  been  brought  under  the  fascination  of 
the  great  world.  On  the  one  hand,  such  a  generation 
is  apt  to  seek  the  security  of  its  outward  life  in  things 
materially  large  and  splendid,  to  despise  as  paltry  its 
old  religious  forms,  national  aspirations  and  achieve- 
ments, and  be  very  desirous  to  follow  foreign  fashion 
and  rival  foreign  wealth.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
religious  spirit  of  such  an  age,  withdrawn  from  its 
legitim-ate  objects,  seeks  satisfaction  in  petty  and 
puerile  practices',  demeaning  itself  spiritually,  in  a 
way  that  absurdly  contrasts  with  the  grandeur  of  its 
material  ambitions.  Such  a  stage  in  the  life  of  a  people 
has  its  analogy  in  the  growth  of  the  individual,  when 
the  boy,  new  to  the  world,  by  affecting  the  grandest 


tii  THE  BOOK  OF  ISj-lIAIL 

companions  and  models,  assumes  an  ambitious  manner, 
with  contempt  for  his  former  circumstances,  yet  inwardly 
remains  credulous,  timid  and  liable  to  panic.  Isaiah 
reveals  that  it  was  such  a  stage,  which  both  the  kingdoms 
of  Israel  hao  now  reached.  TJiis  people  hath  refused 
the  waters  of  ShiloaJi,  that  go  softly,  and  rejoice  in  Rezin 
and  Rcmaliah' s  son. 

It  was  natural,  that  when  the  people  of  Judah  con- 
trasted their  own  estate  with  that  of  Assyria,  or  even 
of  Damascus,  they  should  despise  themselves.  For 
what  was  Judah  ?  A  petty  principality,  no  larger  than 
three  of  our  own  counties.  And  what  was  Jerusalem  ? 
A  mere  mountain  village,  som^e  sixty  or  seventy  acres 
of  barren  rock,  cut  into  tongues  by  three  insignificant 
valleys,  down  which  there  sornetimes  struggled  tiny 
threads  of  water,  though  the  beds  were  oftener  dry, 
giving  the  town  a  withered  and  squalid  look — no  great 
river  to  nourish,  ennoble  or  protect.  What  were 
such  a  country  and  capital  to  compare  with  the  empire 
of  Assyria  ? — the  empire  of  the  two  rivers,  whose 
powerful  streams  washed  the  ramparts,  wharves,  and 
palace  stairs  of  mighty  cities  !  What  was  Jerusalem 
ev^en  to  the  capital  of  Rezin  ?  Were  not  Abana  and 
Pharpar,  rivers  of  Damascus,  better  than  all  the 
waters  of  Israel,  let  alone  these  v/aterless  wadys, 
whose  bleached  beds  made  the  Jewish  capital  so 
squalid  ?  It  was  the  Assyrian's  vast  water  system — 
canals,  embankments,  sluices,  and  the  wealth  of  water 
moving  through  them — that  most  impressed  the  poor 
Jew,  whose  streams  failed  him  in  summer,  and  who 
had  to  treasure  up  his  scanty  stores  of  rainwater  in 
the  cisterns,  with  which  the  rocky  surface  of  his 
territory  is  still  so  thickly  indented.  There  had, 
indeed,   been  at  Jerusalem    some    attempt  to   conduct 


vii.— ix.,  8.]  PEOPLE  AND  CHURCH.  ii^ 

water.  It  was  called  The  SJiiloah — conduit  or  aqueduct, 
literally  emissary  in  the  old  sense  of  the  word 
— a  rough,  narrow  tunnel  of  some  thousand  feet  in 
length,  hewn  through  the  living  rock  from  the  only 
considerable  spring  on  the  east  side  of  Jerusalem, 
to  a  reservoir  within  the  walls.  To  this  day  The 
Shiloah  presents  itself  as  not  by  any  means  a  first- 
class  piece  of  engineering.  Ahaz  had  either  just  made 
the  tunnel  or  repaired  it ;  but  if  the  water  went  no 
faster  than  it  travels  now,  the  results  were  indeed 
ridiculous.  Well  might  this  people  despise  the  ivatos 
of  the  Shiloah,  that  go  trickling,  when  they  thought  upon 
the  rivers  of  Damascus  or  the  broad  streams  of 
Mesopotamia.  Certainly  it  was  enough  to  dry  up 
the  patriotism  of  the  Judean,  if  he  was  capable  of 
appreciating  only  material  value,  to  look  upon  this 
oare,  riverless  capital,  with  its  bungled  aqueduct  and 
trickling  water  supply.  On  merely  material  grounds, 
Judah  was  about  the  last  country  at  that  time,  in 
which  her  inhabitants  might  be  expected  to  show  pride 
or  confidence. 

/  But  woe  to  the  people,  whose  attachment  to  their 
land  is  based  upon  its  material  advantage's,  who  have 
lost  their  sense  for  those  spiritual  presences,  from  an 
appreciation  of  which  springs  all  true  love  of  country, 
with  warrior's  courage  in  her  defence  and  statesman's 
faith  in  her  destiny !  The  greatest  calamity,  which 
can  befall  any  people,  is  to  forfeit  their  enthusiasm  for 
the  soil,  on  which  their  history  has  been  achieved  and 
their  hearths  and  altars  lie,  by  suffering  their  faith  in 
the  presence  of  God,  of  which  these  are  but  the  tokens, 
to  pass  away.  With  this  loss  Isaiah  now  reproaches 
Judah.  The  people  are  utterly  materialized ;  their 
delights  have    been    in    gold    and  silver,  chariots  and 


!24  7 HE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

horses,  fenced  cities  and  broad  streams,  and  their  faith 
has  now  followed  their  deh'ghts.  But  these  things  to 
which  they  flee  will  only  prove  their  destruction.  The 
great  foreign  river,  whose  waters  they  covet,  will  over- 
flow them  :  even  the  king  of  Assyria  and  all  his  glory, 
and  he  shall  come  up  over  all  his  channels  and  go  over 
all  his  banks ;  ajtd  he  shall  sivecp  onward  into  Judah ; 
he  shall  overflow  and  pass  through ;  he  shall  reach  even 
to  the  neck ;  and  the  stretching  out  of  his  wings  shall 
fill  the  breadth  of  thy  land,  O  Inimanuel,  thou  who  art 
God-with-us.  At  the  sound  of  the  Name,  which 
floats  in  upon  the  floods  of  invasion  like  the  Ark  on 
the  waters  of  old,  Isaiah  pulls  together  his  distraught 
faith  in  his  country,  and  forgetting  her  faults,  flings 
defiance  at  her  foes.  Associate  yourselves,  ye  peoples, 
and  ye  shall  be  broken  in  pieces ;  and  give  ear,  all  ye  of 
far-off  countries,  gird  yourselves,  and  ye  shall  be  broken 
in  pieces.  Take  counsel  together,  and  it  shall  be  brought 
to  nought;  speak  the  word,  and  it  shall  not  stand :  for 
Immanu-El — "With  us  is  God."  The  challenge  was 
made  good.  The  prophet's  faith  prevailed  over  the 
people's  materialism,  and  Jerusalem  remained  inviolable 
till  Isaiah's  death. 

Meantime  the  Assyrian  came  on.  But  the  infatuated 
people  of  Judah  continued  to  tremble  rather  before  the 
doomed  conspirators,  Rezin  and  Pekah.  It  must  have 
been  a  time  of  huge  excitement.  The  prophet  tells  us 
how  he  was  steadied  by  the  pressure  of  the  Lord's 
hand,  and  how,  being  steadied,  the  meaning  of  the  word 
"  Immanuel  "  was  opened  out  to  him.  God-with-us  is 
the  one  great  fact  of  life.  Amid  all  the  possible  alliances 
and  all  the  possible  fears  of  a  complex  political  situa- 
tion, He  remains  the  one  certain  alliance,  the  one  real 
fear.     Say  ye  not,  A  conspiracy,  concerning  all  whereof 


vii.—ix.,  8.J  PEOPLE  AND   CHURCH.  125 

this  people  say,  A  conspiracy ;  neither  fear  ye  tJicir  fear, 
nor  be  in  dread  tJiereof  Jeiiovah  of  hosts,  Him  shall  ye 
sanctify ;  and  let  Him  be  your  fear,  and  let  Him  be  your 
dread.  God  is  the  one  great  fact  of  life,  but  what  a 
double-edged  fact — a  sanctuary  to  all  who  put  their  trust 
in  Him,  but  a  rock  of  ojjence  to  both  houses  of  Israel ! 
The  figure  is  very  picturesque.  An  altar,  a  common 
stone  on  steps,  one  of  those  which  covered  the  land 
in  large  numbers — it  is  easy  to  see  what  a  double 
purpose  that  might  serve.  What  a  joy  the  sight  would 
be  to  the  weary  wanderer  or  refugee  who  sought  it, 
what  a  comfort  as  he  leant  his  weariness  upon  it,  and 
knew  he  was  safe  !  But  those  who  were  flying  over 
the  land,  not  seeking  Jehovah,  not  knowing  indeed 
what  they  sought,  blind  and  panic-stricken — for  them 
what  could  that  altar  do  but  trip  them  up  like  any 
other  common  rock  in  their  way  ?  "  In  fact.  Divine 
justice  is  something  which  is  either  observed,  desired, 
or  attained,  and  is  then  man's  weal,  or,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  overlooked,  rejected,  or  sought  after  in  a  wild, 
unintelligent  spirit,  and  only  in  the  hour  of  need,  and 
is  then  their  lasting  ruin."  * 

The  Assyrian  came  on,  and  the  temper  of  the 
Jews  grew  worse.  Samaria  was  indeed  doomed 
from  the  first,  but  for  some  time  Isaiah  had  been 
excepting  Judah  from  a  judgement  for  which  the  guilt  of 
Northern  Israel  was  certainly  riper.  He  foresaw,  of' 
course,  that  the  impetus  of  invasion  might  sweep  the 
Assyrians  into  Judah,  but  he  had  triumphed  in  this : 
that  Judah  was  Immanuel's  land,  and  that  all  who 
arrayed  themselves  against  her  must  certainly  come  to 
nought.    But  now  his  ideas  have  changed,  as  Judah  has 

Ewald. 


126  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

persisted  in  evil.  He  knows  now  that  God  is  for 
a  stumbling-block  to  both  houses  of  Israel ;  nay,  that 
upon  Jerusalem  herself  He  will  fall  as  a  gin  and  a 
snare.  Only  for  a  little  group  of  individuals,  separate 
from  both  States,  and  gathered  round  the  prophet  and 
the  word  of  God  given  to  him,  is  salvation  certain. 
People,  as  well  as  king,  have  been  found  wanting. 
There  remains  only  this  remnant. 

Isaiah  then  at  last  sees  his  remnant.  But  the 
point  we  have  reached  is  significant  for  more  than  the 
fulfilment  of  his  expectations.  This  is  the  first  appear- 
ance in  history  of  a  religious  community,  apart  from  the 
forms  of  domestic  or  national  life.  "  Till  then  no  one 
had  dreamed  of  a  fellowship  of  faith  dissociated  from 
all  national  forms,  bound  together  by  faith  in  the 
Divine  word  alone.  It  was  the  birth  of  a  new  era  in 
religion,  for  it  was  the  birth  of  the  conception  of  tlie 
Church,  the  first  step  in  the  emancipation  of  spiritual 
religion  from  the  forms  of  political  life."  * 

The  plan  of  the  seventh  and  eighth  chapters  is  now 
fully  disclosed.  As  the  king  for  his  unworthiness  has 
to  give  place  to  the  Messiah,  so  the  nation  for  theirs 
have  to  give  place  to  the  Church.  In  the  seventh 
chapter  the  king  was  found  wanting,  and  the  Messiah 
promised.  In  the  eighth  chapter  the  people  are  found 
wanting  ;  and  the  prophet,  turning  from  them,  proceeds 
to  form  the  Church  among  those  who  accept  the  Word, 
which  king  and  people  have  refused.  Bind  thou  up 
the  testimony,  and  seal  the  teaching^  among  my  disciples. 
And  I  will  wait  on  JcJiovah,  who  hidcth  His  face  from 


*  Robertson  Smith,  Prophets  of  Israel,  p.  275. 

+  English  Version,  "  law,"  but  not  the  law  of  Moses.     Isaiah  refers 
to  the  word  that  has  come  by  himself. 


-ix.,  8.]  PEOPLE  AND   CHURCH.  127 


the  house  of  Jacob,  and  I  will  look  for  Him.  Behold, 
I  and  the  children  Jehovah  hath  given  me  are  for  signs 
and  wonders  in  Israel  from  Jehovah  of  hosts,  Him  that 
dwelleth  in  Mount  Zion. 

This,  then,  is  the  situation  :  revelation  concluded, 
the  Church  formed  upon  it,  and  the  nation  abandoned. 
But  is  that  situation  final  ?  The  words  just  quoted 
betray  the  prophet's  hope  that  it  is  not.  He  says  :  / 
will  wait.  He  says  again  :  The  Lord  is  only  hiding 
His  face  from  the  house  of  Jacob.  I  will  expect  again 
the  shining  of  His  countenance.  I  will  hope  for  Divine 
grace  and  the  nation  being  once  more  conterminous. 
The  rest  of  the  section  (to  ix.  7)  is  the  development  of 
this  hope,  which  stirs  in  the  prophet's  heart  after  he  has 
closed  the  record  of  revelation. 

The  darkness  deepened  across  Israel.  The  Assyrian 
had  come.  The  northern  floods  kept  surging  among 
the  little  States  of  Palestine,  and  none  knew  what  might 
be  left  standing.  We  can  well  understand  Isaiah 
pausing,  as  he  did,  in  face  of  such  rapid  and  incontrol- 
lable  movements.  When  Tiglath-pileser  swept  over  the 
plain  of  Esdraelon,  casting  down  the  king  of  Samaria  and 
the  Philistine  cities,  and  then  swept  back  again,  carry- 
ing off  upon  his  ebb  the  populations  east  of  the  Jordan, 
it  looked  very  like  as  if  both  the  houses  of  Israel  should 
fall.  In  their  panic,  the  people  betook  themselves  to 
morbid  forms  of  religion;  and  at  first  Isaiah  was  obliged 
to  quench  the  hope  and  pity  he  had  betrayed  for  them 
in  indignation  at  the  utter  contrariety  of  their  religious 
practices  to  the  word  of  God.  There  can  be  no  Divine 
grace  for  the  people  as  long  as  they  seek  unto  them 
that  have  familiar  spirits,  and  unto  the  wizards  that 
chirp  and  thai  mutter.  For  such  a  disposition  the 
prophet    has    nothing  but  scorn,   SliouM  not  a  people. 


128  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

seek  unto  their  God?  On  behalf  of  the  living  should 
they  seek  unto  the  dead?  They  must  come  back  to 
the  prophet's  own  word  before  hope  may  dawn.  To  the 
revelation  and  the  testimony  !  If  they  speak  not  according 
to  this  word,  surely  there  is  no  morning  for  them. 

The  night,  however,  grew  too  awful  for  scorn. 
There  had  been  no  part  of  the  land  so  given  to  the 
idolatrous  practices,  which  the  prophet  scathed,  as 
the  land  of  Zchnlon  and  the  land  of  Naphtali,  by  the 
sea  beyond  fordan,  Galilee  of  the  Gentiles.  But  all 
the  horrors  of  captivity  had  now  fallen  upon  it,  and  it 
had  received  at  the  Lord's  hand  double  for  all  its  sins. 
The  night  had  been  torn  enough  by  lightning ;  was 
there  no  dawn  ?  The  darkness  of  these  provinces  fills 
the  prophet's  silenced  thoughts.  He  sees  a  people 
Jiardly  bestead  and  huvtgry,  fretting  themselves,  cursing 
their  king,  who  had  betrayed  them,  and  their  God,  who 
had  abaiidoned  them,  turning  their  faces  upwards  to 
heaven  and  downwards  to  the  sacred  soil  from  which 
they  were  being  dragged,  but,  behold,  distress  and 
darkness,  the  gloom  of  anguish/  and  into  thick  darkness 
they  are  driven  away.  It  is  a  murky  picture,  yet 
through  the  snioke  of  it  we  are  able  to  discern  a  weird 
procession  of  Israelites  departing  into  captivity.  We 
date  it,  therefore,  about  732  b.c,  the  night  of  Israel's  first 
great  captivity.  The  shock  and  the  pity  of  this  rouse 
the  prophet's  great  heart.  He  cannot  continue  to  say 
that  there  is  no  morning  for  those  benighted  provinces. 
He  will  venture  a  great  hope  for  their  people. 

Over  how  many  months  the  crowded  verses,  viii. 
21 — ix.  7,  must  be  spread,  it  is  useless  now  to 
inquire — whether  the  revulsion  they  mark  arose  all  at 
once  in  the  prophet's  mind,  or  hope  grew  graduall3; 
brighter  as  the   smoke  of  war  died  away  on   Israel's 


vii.— i:i.  8.]  PEOPLE  AND   CHURCH.  129 

northern  frontier  during  731  B.C.  It  is  enough  that  we 
can  mark  the  change.  The  prophet's  tones  pass  from 
sarcasm  to  pity  (viii.  20,  2l);  from  pity  to  hope 
(viii.  22 — ix.  i) ;  from  hope  to  triumph  in  the 
vision  of  salvation  actually  achieved  (ix.  2).  The 
people  that  ivalked  in  darkness  have  seen  a  great  light; 
they  that  dwelt  in  the  land  of  the  shadow  of  death,  on  them 
hath  the  light  shined.  For  a  mutilated,  we  see  a  multi- 
plied, nation ;  for  the  fret  of  hunger  and  the  curses  of 
defeat,  we  hear  the  joy  of  harvest  and  of  spoil  after 
victory.  For  the  yoke  of  his  burden,  and  the  staff  of  his 
shoulder,  the  rod  of  his  oppressor,  Thou  hast  broken  as  in 
the  day  of  Midian.  War  has  rolled  away  for  ever  over 
that  northern  horizon,  and  all  the  relics  of  war  in  the 
land  are  swept  together  into  the  fire.  For  all  the 
armour  of  the  armed  man  in  the  tumult^  and  the  garments 
rolled  in  blood,  shall  even  be  for  burning,  and  for  fuel  of 
fire.  In  the  midday  splendour  of  this  peace,  which, 
after  the  fashion  of  Hebrew  prophecy,  is  described  as 
already  realized,  Isaiah  hails  the  Author  of  it  all  in  that 
gracious  and  marvellous  Child  whose  birth  he  had  already 
intimated.  Heir  to  the  throne  of  David,  but  entitled  by  a 
fourfold  name,  too  generous,  perhaps,  for  a  mere  mortal, 
Wonderful-Counsellor,  Hero-God,  Father-Everlasting, 
Prince -of peace,  who  shall  redeem  the  realms  of  his 
great  forerunner  and  maintain  Israel  with  justice  and 
righteousness  from  henceforth,  even  for  ever. 

When,  finally,  the  prophet  inquires  what  has  led  his 
thoughts  through  this  rapid  change  from  satisfaction 
(chap.  viii.  16)  with  the  salvation  of  a  small  remnant 
of  believers  in  the  word  of  God — a  little  kernel  of 
patience  in  the  midst  of  a  godless  and  abandoned 
people — to  the  daring  vision  of  a  whole  nation  re- 
deemed and  established  in  peace  under  a  Godlike  King, 

VOL.   I.  9 


130  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

he  says :   The  zeal  of  the  Lord  of  hosts  hath  performed 
this. 

The  zeal,  translates  our  English  version,  but  no 
one  English  word  will  give  it.  It  is  that  mixture  of 
hot  honour  and  affection  to  which  "jealousy"  in  its 
good  sense  comes  near.  It  is  that  overflow  of  the  love 
that  cannot  keep  still,  which,  when  men  think  God  has 
surely  done  all  He  will  or  can  do  for  an  ungrateful 
race,  visits  them  in  their  distress,  and  carries  them 
forward  into  unconceived  dispensations  of  grace  and 
glory.  It  is  the  Spirit  of  God,  which  yearns  after  the 
lost,  speaks  to  the  self-despairing  of  hope,  and  surprises 
rebel  and  prophet  alike  with  new  revelations  of  love. 
We  have  our  systems  representing  God's  work  up  to 
the  limits  of  our  experience,  and  we  settle  upon  them  ; 
but  the  Almighty  is  ever  greater  than  His  promise  or 
than  His  revelation  of  Himself. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE  MESSIAH. 

WE  have  now  reached  that  point  of  Isaiah's  pro- 
phesying at  which  the  Messiah  becomes  the 
most  conspicuous  figure  on  his  horizon.  Let  us  take 
advantage  of  it,  to  gather  into  one  statement  all  that  the 
prophet  told  his  generation  concerning  that  exalted  and 
mysterious  Person.* 

When  Isaiah  began  to  prophesy,  there  was  current 
among  the  people  of  Judah  the  expectation  of  a  glorious 
King.  How  far  the  expectation  was  defined  it  is  im- 
possible to  ascertain  ;  but  this  at  least  is  historically 
certain.  A  promise  had  been  made  to  David  (2  Sam.  vii. 
4 — 17)  by  which  the  permanence  of  his  dynasty  was 
assured.  His  offspring,  it  was  said,  should  succeed 
him,  yet  eternity  was  promised  not  to  any  individual 
descendant,  but  to  the  dynasty.  Prophets  earlier  than 
Isaiah  emphasized  this  establishment  of  the  house  of 
David,  even  in  the  days  of  Israel's  greatest  distress ; 
but  they  said  nothing  of  a  single  monarch  with  whom 
the  fortunes  of  the  house  were  to  be  identified.     It  is 

*  The  Messiah,  or  Anointed,  is  used  in  the  Old  Testament  of  many 
agents  'of  God  :  high-priest  (Lev.  iv.  3) ;  ministers  of  the  Word 
(Ps.  cv.  15);  Cyrus  (Isa.  xlv.  i);  but  mostly  of  God's  king,  actual 
(i  Sam.  xxiv.  7),  or  expected  (Dan.  ix.  25).  So  it  became  in  Jewish 
theology  the  technical  term  for  the  coming  King  and  the  Captain 
of  salvation. 


132  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

clear,  however,  even  without  the  evidence  of  the 
Messianic  Psalms,  that  the  hope  of  such  a  hero  was 
quick  in  Israel.  Besides  the  documentary  proof  of 
David's  own  last  words  (2  Sam.  xxiii.),  there  is  the 
manifest  impossibility  of  dreaming  of  an  ideal  kingdom 
apart  from  the.  ideal  king.  Orientals,  and  especially 
Orientals  of  that  period,  were  incapable  of  realizing  the 
triumph  of  an  idea  or  an  institution  without  connecting 
it  with  a  personality.  So  that  we  may  be  perfectly 
sure,  that  when  Isaiah  began  to  prophesy  the  people 
not  only  counted  upon  the  continuance  of  David's 
dynasty,  as  they  counted  upon  the  presence  of  Jehovah 
Himself,  but  were  familiar  with  the  ideal  of  a  monarch, 
and  lived  in  hope  of  its  realization. 

In  the  first  stage  of  his  prophecy,  it  is  remarkable, 
Isaiah  makes  no  use  of  this  tradition,  although  he  gives 
more  than  one  representation  of  Israel's  future  in  which 
it  might  naturally  have  appeared.  No  word  is  spoken 
of  a  Messiah  even  in  the  awful  conversation,  in  which 
Isaiah  received  from  the  Eternal  the  fundamentals  of 
his  teaching.  The  only  hope  there  permitted  to  him 
is  the  survival  of  a  bare,  leaderless  few  of  the  people, 
or,  to  use  his  own  word,  a  stmnp,  with  no  sign  of  a 
prominent  sprout  upon  it.  In  connection,  however, 
with  the  survival  of  a  remnant,  as  v/e  have  said  on  1 
chap.  vi.  (p.  89),  it  is  plain  that  there  were  two  indis- 
pensable conditions,  which  the  prophet  could  not  help 
having  to  state  sooner  or  later.  Indeed,  one  of  them  he 
had  mentioned  already.  It  was  indispensable  that  the 
people  should  have  a  leader,  and  that  they  should  have 
a  rallying-point.  They  must  have  their  King,  and  they 
must  have  their  City.  Every  reader  of  Isaiah  knows 
that  it  is  on  these  two  themes  the  prophet  rises  to  the 
height  of  his    eloquence — Jerusalem  shall   remain  in- 


THE  MESSIAH.  133 


violable;  a  glorious  King  shall  be  given  unto  her.  But 
it  has  not  been  so  generally  remarked,  that  Isaiah  is  far 
more  concerned  and  consistent  about  the  secure  city  than 
about  the  ideal  monarch.  From  first  to  last  the  estab- 
lishment arid  peace  of  Jerusalem  are  never  out  of  his 
thoughts,  but  he  speaks  only  now  and  then  of  the  King 
to  come.  Through  long  periods  of  his  ministry,  though 
frequently  describing  the  blessed  future,  he  is  silent 
about  the  Messiah,  and  even  sometimes  so  groups  the 
inhabitants  of  that  future,  as  to  leave  no  room  for  Him 
among  them.  Indeed,  the  silences  of  Isaiah  upon  this 
Person  are  as  remarkable  as  the  brilliant  passages,  in 
which  he  paints  His  endowments  and  His  work. 

If  we  consider  the  moment,  chosen  by  Isaiah  for 
announcing  the  Messiah  and  adding  his  seal  to  the 
national  belief  in  the  advent  of  a  glorious  Son  of  David, 
we  find  some  significance  in  the  fact  that  it  was  a 
moment,  when  the  throne  of  David  was  unworthily  filled 
and  David's  dynasty  was  for  the  first  time  seriously 
threatened.  It  is  impossible  to  dissociate  the  birth  of 
a  boy  called  Immaniiel,  and  afterwards  so  closely  iden- 
tified with  the  fortunes  of  the  whole  land  (vii.  8), 
from  the  public  expectation  of  a  King  of  glory ;  and 
critics  are  almost  unanimous  in  recognizing  Immanuel 
again  in  the  Prince-of-the-Four-Names  in  chap.  ix. 
Immanuel,  therefore,  is  the  Messiah,  the  promised  King 
of  Israel.  But  Isaiah  makes  his  own  first  intimation  of 
Him,  not  when  the  throne  was  worthily  filled  by  an 
Uzziah  or  a  Jotham,  but  when  a  fool  and  traitor  to  God 
abused  its  power,  and  the  foreign  conspiracy  to  set  up 
a  Syrian  prince  in  Jerusalem  imperilled  the  whole 
dynasty.  Perhaps  we  ought  not  to  overlook  the  fact, 
that  Isaiah  does  not  here  designate  Immanuel  as  a 
descendant  of  David.     The  vagueness  with  which  the 


134  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

mother  is  described  has  given  rise  to  a  vast  amovint  of 
speculation  as  to  what  particular  person  the  prophet 
meant  by  her.  But  may  not  Isaiah's  vagueness  be  the 
only  intention  he  had  in  mentioning  a  mother  at  all  ? 
The  whole  house  of  David  shared  at  that  moment 
the  sin  of  the  king  (vii.  13);  and  it  is  not  presuming 
too  much  upon  the  freedom  of  our  prophet  to  suppose, 
that  he  shook  himself  loose  from  the  tradition,  which 
entailed  the  Messiah  upon  the  royal  family  of  Judah, 
and  at  least  left  it  an  open  question,  whether  Immanuel 
might  not,  in  consequence  of  their  sin,  spring  from  some 
other  stock. 

It  is,  however,  far  less  with  the  origin,  than  with  the 
experience,  of  Immanuel  that  Isaiah  is  concerned ;  and 
those  who  embark  upon  curious  inquiries,  as  to  who 
exactly  the  mother  might  be,  are  busying  themselves 
with  what  the  prophet  had  no  interest  in,  while  neglect- 
ing that  in  which  really  lay  the  significance  of  the  sign 
that  he  offered. 

Ahaz  by  his  wilfulness  has  made  a  Substitute  neces- 
sary. But  Isaiah  is  far  more  taken  up  with  this  :  that  he 
has  actually  mortgaged  the  prospects  of  that  Substitute. 
The  Messiah  comes,  but  the  wilfulness  of  Ahaz  has 
rendered  His  reign  impossible.  He,  whose  advent  has 
hitherto  not  been  foretold  except  as  the  beginning  of 
an  era  of  prosperity,  and  whose  person  has  not  been 
painted  but  with  honour  and  power,  is  represented  as  a 
helpless  and  innocent  Sufferer — His  prospects  dissipated 
by  the  sins  of  others,  and  Himself  born  only  to  share 
His  people's  indigence  (p.  1 15).  Such  a  representation 
of  the  Hero's  fate  is  of  the  very  highest  interest.  We 
are  accustomed  to  associate  the  conception  of  a  suffering 
Messiah  only  with  a  much  later  development  of  pro- 
phecy, when  Israel  went  into  exile ;   but  the  conception 


THE  MESSIAH.  135 


meets  us  already  here.  It  is  another  proof  that  Esaias 
IS  very  bold.  H*  calls  his  Messiah  Immanuel,  and  yet 
dares  to  present  Him  as  nothing  but  a  Sufferer — a  Suf- 
ferer for  the  sins  of  others.  Born  only  to  suffer  with 
His  people,  who  should  have  inherited  their  throne — 
that  is  Isaiah's  first  doctrine  of  the  Messiah. 

Through  the  rest  of  the  prophecies  published  during 
the  Syro-Ephraitic  troubles  the  Sufferer  is  slowly 
transformed  into  a  Deliverer.  The  stages  of  this 
transformation  are  obscure.  In  chap.  viii.  Immanuel 
is  no  more  defined  than  in  chap.  vii.  He  is  still  only  a 
Name  of  hope  upon  an  unbroken  prospect  of  devasta- 
tion. The  stretchmg  out  of  his  wings — i.e.,  the  floods 
of  the  Assyrian  — shall  fill  the  breadth  of  Thy  land,  O 
Immanuel.  But  this  time  that  the  prophet  utters  the 
Name,  he  feels  inspired  by  new  courage.  He  grasps 
at  Immanuel  as  the  pledge  of  ultimate  salvation.  Let 
the  enemies  of  Judah  work  their  worst ;  it  shall  be  in 
V3.\n,  for  Immanuel,  God  is  with  us.  And  then,  to  our 
astonishment,  while  Isaiah  is  telling  us  how  he  arrived 
at  the  convictions  embodied  in  this  Name,  the  person- 
ality of  Immanuel  fades  away  altogether,  and  Jehovah 
of  hosts  Himself  is  set  forth  as  the  sole  sanctuary  of 
those  who  fear  Him.  There  is  indeed  a  double  dis- 
placement here.  Immanuel  dissolves  in  two  directions. 
As  a  Refuge,  He  is  displaced  by  Jehovah  ;  as  a  Sufferer 
and  a  Symbol  of  the  sufferings  of  the  land,  by  a  little 
community  of  disciples,  the  first  embodiment  of  the 
Church,  who  now,  with  Isaiah,  can  do  nothing  except 
wait  for  the  Lord  (pp.  124 — 126), 

Then,  when  the  prophet's  yearning  thoughts,  that 
will  not  rest  upon  so  dark  a  closure,  struggle  once 
more,  and  struggling  pass  from  despair  to  pity,  and  from 
pity  to  hope,  and  from  hope  to  triumph  in  a  salvation 


136  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

actually  achieved,  they  hail  all  at  once  as  the  Hero  o 
it  the  Son  whose  birth  was  promised.  With  an 
emphasis,  which  vividly  reveals  the  sense  of  exhaustion 
in  the  living  generation  and  the  conviction  that  only 
something  fresh,  and  sent  straight  from  God  Himself, 
can  now  avail  Israel,  the  prophet  cries :  Unto  us  a 
Child  is  born;  unto  us  a  Son  is  given.  The  Messiah 
appears  in  a  glory  that  floods  His  origin  out  of  sight. 
We  cannot  see  whether  He  springs  from  the  house  of 
David ;  but  the  government  is  to  be  upon  His  shoulder, 
and  He  shall  reign  on  David's  throne  with  righteousness 
for  ever.  His  title  shall  be  fourfold  :  Wonderful-Coun- 
sellor, God-Hero,  Father-Everlasting,  Prince-of-Peace. 

These  Four  Names  do  certainly  not  invite  us  to 
grudge  them  meaning,  and  they  have  been  claimed  as 
incontrovertible  proofs,  that  the  prophet  had  an  ab- 
solutely Divine  Person  in  view.  One  of  the  most 
distinguished  and  deliberate  of  Old  Testament  scholars 
declares  that  "  the  Deliverer  whom  Isaiah  promises  is 
nothing  less  than  a  God  in  the  metaphysical  sense  of 
the  word.  The  names  as  a  whole  correspond  to  the 
predicate  ^eo9."*  There  are  serious  reasons,  however, 
which  make  us  doubt  this  conclusion,  and,  though  we 
firmly  hold  that  Jesus  Christ  was  God,  prevent  us  from 
recognizing  these  nam.es  as  prophecies  of  His  Divinity. 
Two  of  the  names  are  capable  of  being  used  of  an 
earthly  monarch  :  Wonderful-Counsellor  and  Prince-of- 
Peace,  which  are,  within  the  range  of  human  virtue, 
in  evident  contrast  to  Ahaz,  at  once  foohsh  in  the  con 
ception  of  his  policy  and  warlike  in  its  results.  It 
will  be  more  difficult  to  get  Western  minds  to  see  how 
Father-Everlasting  may  be  applied  to  a  mere  man, 
but  the  ascription  of  eternity  is  not  unusual  in  Oriental 

*  Schultz,  A.  T.  Tlicologie,  pp.  726,  727. 


THE  MESSIAH.  137 


titles,  and  in  the  Old  Testament  is  sometimes  rendered 
to  things  that  perish.  When  Hebrews  speak  of  any 
one  as  everlasting,  that  does  not  necessarily  imply 
Divinity.  The  second  name,  which  we  render  God- 
Hero,  is,  it  is  true,  used  of  Jehovah  Himself  in  the 
very  next  chapter  to  this,  but  in  the  plural  it  is  also 
used  of  men  by  Ezekiel  (xxxii.  21).  The  part  of  it 
translated  God  is  a  frequent  name  of  the  Divine  Being 
in  the  Old  Testament,  but  literally  means  only  mighty, 
and  is  by  Ezekiel  (xxxi.  1 1)  applied  to  Nebuchad- 
nezzar. We  should  hesitate,  therefore,  to  understand 
by  these  names  "a  God  in  the  metaphysical  sense 
of  the  word." 

We  fall  back  with  greater  confidence  on  other 
arguments  of  a  more  general  kind,  which  apply  to  all 
Isaiah's  prophecies  of  the  Messiah.  If  Isaiah  had  one 
revelation  rather  than  another  to  make,  it  was  the 
revelation  of  the  unity  of  God.  Against  king  and 
people,  who  crowded  their  temple  with  the  shrines  of 
many  deities,  Isaiah  presented  Jehovah  as  the  one  only 
God.  It  would  simply  have  nullified  the  force  of  his 
message,  and  confused  the  generation  to  which  he 
brought  it,  if  either  he  or  they  had  conceived  of  the 
Messiah,  with  the  conceiving  of  Christian  theology,  as 
a  separate  Divine  personality. 

Again,  as  Mr.  Robertson  Smith  has  very  clearly 
explained,*  the  functions  assigned  by  Isaiah  to  the 
King  of  the  future  are  simply  the  ordinary  duties 
of  the  monarchy,  for  which  He  is  equipped  by 
the  indwelling  of  that  Spirit  of  God,  that  makes  all 
wise  men  wise  and  valorous  men  valorous.  "  We 
believe  in  a  Divine  and  eternal  Saviour,  because  the 
work  of  salvation  as  we  understand  it  in  the  lisrht  of  the 


•  Prophets  of  Israel,  p.  306. 


138  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

New  Testament  is  essentially  different  from  the  work  of 
the  wisest  and  best  earthly  king."  But  such  an  earthly 
king's  work  is  all  Isaiah  looks  for.  So  that,  so  far 
from  its  being  derogatory  to  Christ  to  grudge  the  sense 
of  Divinity  to  these  names,  it  is  a  fact  that  the  more 
spiritual  our  notions  are  of  the  saving  woik  of  Jesus, 
the  less  inclined  shall  we  be  to  claim  the  prophecies 
of  Isaiah  in  proof  of  His  Deity. 

There  is  a  third  argument  in  the  same  direction,  the 
force  of  which  we  appreciate  only  when  we  come  to 
discover  how  very  little  from  this  point  onwards  Isaiah 
had  to  say  about  the  promised  king.  In  chaps,  i. — xxxix. 
only  three  other  passages  are  interpreted  as  describing 
the  Messiah.  The  first  of  these,  xi.  I — 5,  dating  perhaps 
from  about  720,  when  Hezekiah  was  king,  tells  us,  for 
the  first  and  only  time  by  Isaiah's  lips,  that  the  Messiah 
is  to  be  a  scion  of  David's  house,  and  confirms  what  we 
have  said  :  that  His  duties,  however  perfectly  they  were 
to  be  discharged,  were  the  usual  duties  of  Judah's 
monarchy.*  The  second  passage,  xxxii.  iff,  which  dates 
probably  from  after  705,  when  Hezekiah  was  still  king, 
is,  if  indeed  it  refers  at  all  to  the  Messiah,  a  still  fainter, 
though  sweeter,  echo  of  previous  descriptions.  While 
the  third  passage,  xxxiii.  17  :  Thou  shalt  see  thy  king  in 
his  beatify,  does  not  refer  to  the  Messiah  at  all,  but  to 
Hezekiah,  then  prostrate  and  in  sackcloth,  with  Assyria 
thundering  at  the  gate  of  Jerusalem  (701).  The 
mass  of  Isaiah's  predictions  of  the  Messiah  thus  fall 
within  the  reign  of  Ahaz,  and  just  at  the  point  at 
which   Ahaz    proved    an    unworthy    representative    of 

*  See  further  on  this  passage  pp.  180 — 183.  As  is  there  pointed 
out,  while  these  passages  on  the  Messiah  arc  indeed  infrequent 
and  unconnected,  there  is  a  very  evident  progress  through  them  of 
Isaiah's  ctotifeptrdn  of  his  Hero's  charadfer. 


THE  MESSIAH.  139 


Jehovah,  and  Judah  and  Israel  were  threatened  with 
complete  devastation.  There  is  a  repetition  when 
Hezekiah  has  come  to  the  throne.  But  in  the  re- 
maining seventeen  years,  except  perhaps  for  one 
allusion,  Isaiah  is  silent  on  the  ideal  king,  although 
he  continued  throughout  that  time  to  unfold  pictures 
of  the  blessed  future  which  contained  every  other 
Messianic  feature,  and  the  realization  of  which  he 
placed  where  he  had  placed  his  Prince-of-the-Four- 
Names — in  connection,  that  is,  with  the  approaching 
defeat  of  the  Assyrians.  Ignoring  the  Messiah,  during 
these  3'ears  Isaiah  lays  all  the  stress  of  his  prophecy 
on  the  inviolability  of  Jerusalem ;  and  while  he  promises 
the  recovery  of  the  actually  reigning  monarch  from  the 
distress  of  the  Assyrian  invasion, — as  if  that  were  what 
the  people  chiefly  desired  to  see,  and  not  a  brighter, 
stronger  substitute, — he  hails  Jehovah  Himself,  in  soli- 
tary and  undeputed  sovereignty,  as  Judge,  Lawgiver, 
Monarch  and  Saviour  (xxxiii.  22).  Between  Hezekiah, 
thus  restored  to  his  beauty,  and  Jehovah's  own 
presence,  there  is  surely  no  room  left  for  another  royal 
personage.  But  these  very  facts — that  Isaiah  felt  most 
compelled  to  predict  an  ideal  king  when  the  actual 
king  was  unworthy,  and  that,  on  the  contrary,  when 
the  reigning  king  proved  worthy,  approximating  to  the 
ideal,  Isaiah  felt  no  need  for  another,  and  indeed 
in  his  piophecies  left  no  room  for  another — form  surely 
a  powerful  proof  that  the  king  he  expected  was  not 
a  supernatural  being,  but  a  human  personality,  extra- 
ordinarily endowed  by  God,  one  of  the  descendants 
of  David  by  ordinary  succession,  but  fulfilling  the  ideal 
which  his  forerunners  had  missed.  Even  if  we  allow 
that  the  four  nam.es  contain  among  them  the  predicate 
of   Divinity,  we   must   not   overlook   the    fact  that  the 


I40  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

Prince  is  only  called  by  them.  It  is  not  that  He  is, 
but  that  He  shall  be  called,  Wonderful-Counsellor,  God- 
Hero,  Father-Everlasting,  Princc-of-Peace.  No'vvhere  is 
there  a  dogmatic  statement  that  He  is  Divine.  Be- 
sides, it  is  inconceivable  that  if  Isaiah,  the  prophet  of 
the  unity  of  God,  had  at  any  time  a  second  Divine 
Person  in  his  hope,  he  should  have  afterwards  remained 
so  silent  about  Him.  To  interpret  the  ascription  of 
the  Four  Names  as  a  conscious  definition  of  Divinity, 
at  all  like  the  Christian  conception  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  to 
render  the  silence  of  Isaiah's  later  life  and  the  silence 
of  subsequent  prophets  utterly  inexplicable. 

On  these  grounds,  then,  we  decline  to  believe  that 
Isaiah  saw  in  the  king  of  the  future  "a  God  in  the 
metaphysical  sense  of  the  word."  Just  because  we 
know  the  proofs  of  the  Divinity  of  Jesus  to  be  so 
spiritual,  do  we  feel  the  uselessness  of  looking  for  them 
to  prophecies,  that  manifestly  describe  purely  earthly 
and  civil  functions. 

But  such  a  conclusion  by  no  means  shuts  us  out 
from  tracing  a  relation  between  these  prophecies  and 
the  appearance  of  Jesus.  The  fact,  that  Isaiah  allowed 
them  to  go  down  to  posterity,  proves  that  he  himself 
did  not  count  them  to  have  been  exhausted  in  Hezekiah. 
And  this  fact  of  their  preservation  is  ever  so  much  the 
more  significant,  that  their  literal  truth  was  discredited 
by  events.  Isaiah  had  evidently  foretold  the  birth  and 
bitter  youth  of  Immanuel  for  the  near  future.  Im- 
manuel's  childhood  was  to  begin  with  the  devastation 
of  Ephraim  and  Syria,  and  to  be  passed  in  circumstances 
consequent  on  the  devastation  of  Judah,  which  was  to 
follow  close  upon  that  of  her  tv;o  enemies.  But  although 
Ephraim  and  Syria  were  immediately  spoiled,  as  Isaiah 
foresaw,  Judah  lay  in  peace  all  the  reign  of  Ahaz  and 


THE  MESSIAH.  14I 


many  years  after  his  death.  So  that  had  Immanuel 
been  born  in  the  next  twenty-five  years  after  the  an- 
nouncement of  His  birth,  He  would  not  have  found  in 
His  own  land  the  circumstances  which  Isaiah  foretold 
as  the  discipline  of  His  boyhood.  Isaiah's  forecast  of 
Judah's  fate  was,  therefore,  falsified  by  events.  That 
the  prophet  or  his  disciples  should  have  allowed  it  to 
remain,  is  proof  that  they  believed  it  to  have  contents, 
which  the  history  they  had  lived  through  neither  ex- 
hausted nor  discredited.  In  the  prophecies  of  the 
Messiah  there  was  something  ideal,  which  was  as 
permanent  and  valid  for  the  future  as  the  prophecy  of 
the  Remnant  or  that  of  the  visible  majesty  of  Jehovah. 
If  the  attachment,  at  which  the  prophet  aimed  when  he 
launched  these  prophecies  on  the  stream  of  time,  was 
denied  them  by  their  own  age,  that  did  not  mean  their 
submersion,  but  only  their  freedom  to  float  further 
down  the  future  and  seek  attachment  there. 

This  boldness,  to  entrust  to  future  ages  a  pro- 
phecy discredited  by  contemporary  history,  argues  a 
profound  belief  in  its  moral  meaning  and  eternal 
significance;  and  it  is  this  boldness,  in  face  of  disap- 
pointment continued  from  generation  to  generation  in 
Israel,  that  constitutes  the  uniqueness  of  the  Messianic 
hope  among  that  people.  To  sublimate  this  permanent 
meaning  of  the  prophecies  from  the  contemporary 
material,  with  which  it  is  mixed,  is  not  difficult. 
Isaiah  foretells  his  Prince  on  the  supposition  that 
certain  things  are  fulfilled.  When  the  people  are 
reduced  to  the  last  extreme,  when  there  is  no  more  a 
king  to  rally  or  to  rule  them,  when  the  land  is  in 
captivity,  when  revelation  is  closed,  when,  in  despair 
of  the  darkness  of  the  Lord's  face,  men  have  taken 
to  them  that  have  familiar  spirits  and  wizards  that  peep 


142  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


and  mutter,  then,  in  that  last  sinful,  hopeless  estate 
of  man,  a  Deliverer  shall  appear.  The  zeal  of  the  Lord 
of  hosts  will  perform  it.  This  is  the  first  article  of 
Isaiah's  Messianic  creed,  and  stands  back  behind  the 
Messiah  and  all  Messianic  blessings,  their  exhaustiess 
origin.  Whatsoever  man's  sin  and  darkness  be,  the 
Almighty  lives,  and  His  zeal  is  infinite.  Therefore 
it  is  a  fact  eternally  true,  that  whatsoever  Deliverer 
His  people  need  and  can  receive  shall  be  sent  to  them, 
and  shall  be  styled  by  whatsoever  names  their  hearts  can 
best  appreciate.  Titles  shall  be  given  Him  to  attract 
their  hope  and  their  homage,  and  not  a  definition  of  His 
nature,  of  which  their  theological  vocabulary  would 
be  incapable.  This  is  the  vital  kernel  of  Messianic 
prophecy  in  Isaiah.  The  zeal  of  the  Lord,  kindling 
the  dark  thoughts  of  the  prophet  as  he  broods 
over  his  people's  need  of  salvation,  suddenly  makes  a 
Saviour  visible — visible  just  as  He  is  needed  there  and 
then.  Isaiah  hears  Him  hailed  by  titles  that  satisfy  the 
particular  wants  of  the  age,  and  express  men's  thoughts 
as  far  up  the  idea  of  salvation  and  majesty  as  they  of  that 
age  can  rise.  But  the  prophet  has  also  perceived  that 
sin  and  disaster  will  so  accumulate  before  the  Messiah 
comes,  that,  though  innocent.  He  shall  have  to  bear 
tribulation  and  pass  to  His  prime  through  sufiering. 
No  one  with  open  mind  can  deny,  that  in  this  moderate 
estimate  of  the  prophet's  meaning  there  is  a  very  great 
deal  of  the  essence  of  the  Gospel  as  it  has  been  fulfilled 
in  the  personal  consciousness  and  saving  work  of 
Jesus  Christ, — as  much  of  that  essence,  indeed,  as  it  was 
possible  to  communicate  to  so  early  a  generation,  and 
one  whose  religious  needs  were  so  largely  what  we  call 
temporal.  But  if  we  grant  this,  and  if  at  the  same 
time  we  appreciate  the  uniqueness  of  such  a  hope  as 


THE  MESSIAH,  143 


this  of  Israel,  then  surely  it  must  be  allowed  to  have 
the  appearance  of  a  special  preparation  for  Christ's  life 
and  work ;  and  so,  to  use  very  moderate  words  which 
have  been  applied  to  Messianic  prophecy  in  general,  it 
may  be  taken  "as  a  proof  of  its  true  connection  with 
the  Gospel  dispensation  as  part  of  one  grand  scheme  in 
the  counsels  of  Providence."  * 

Men  do  not  ask  when  they  drink  of  a  streamlet  high 
up  on  the  hills,  "  Is  this  going  to  be  a  great  river  ?  " 
They  are  satisfied  if  it  is  water  enough  to  quench  their 
thirst.  And  so  it  was  enough  for  Old  Testament 
believers  if  they  found  in  Isaiah's  prophecy  of  a 
Deliverer — as  they  did  find — what  satisfied  their  own 
religious  needs,  without  convincing  them  to  what 
volumes  it  should  swell.  But  this  does  not  mean  that 
in  using  these  Old  Testament  prophecies  we  Christians 
should  limit  our  enjoyment  of  them  to  the  measure  of 
the  generation  to  whom  they  were  addressed.  To 
have  known  Christ  must  make  the  predictions  of  the 
Messiah  different  to  a  man.  You  cannot  bring  so 
infinite  an  ocean  of  blessing  into  historic  connection 
with  these  generous,  expansive  intimations  of  the  Old 
Testament  without  its  passing  into  them.  If  we  may 
use  a  rough  figure,  the  Messianic  prophecies  of  the 
Old  Testament  are  tidal  rivers.  They  not  only  run,  as 
we  have  seen,  to  their  sea,  which  is  Christ;  they  feel 
His  reflex  influence.  It  is  not  enough  for  a  Christian 
to  have  followed  the  historical  direction  of  the  prophecies, 
or  to  have  proved  their  connection  with  the  New 
Testament  as  parts  of  one  Divine  harmony.  Forced 
back  by  the  fulness  of  meaning  to  which  he  has  found 

*  Stanton:  The  Jewish  and  Christian  Messiah. 


144  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

their  courses  open,  he  returns  to  find  the  savour  of  the 
New  Testament  upon  them,  and  that  where  he  descended 
shallow  and  tortuous  channels,  with  all  the  difficulties 
of  historical  exploration,  he  is  borne  back  on  full  tides 
of  worship.  To  use  the  appropriate  words  of  Isaiah, 
the  Lord  is  with  him  there,  a  place  of  broad  rivers  and 
streams. 

With  all  this,  however,  we  must  not  forget  that,  be- 
side these  prophecies  of  a  great  earthly  ruler,  there  runs 
another  stream  of  desire  and  promise,  in  which  we  see 
a  much  stronger  premonition  of  the  fact  that  a  Divine 
Being  shall  some  day  dwell  among  men.  We  mean  the 
Scriptures  in  which  it  is  foretold  that  Jehovah  Himself 
shall  visibly  visit  Jerusalem.  This  line  of  prophecy, 
taken  along  with  the  powerful  anthropomorphic  repre- 
sentations of  God, — astonishing  in  a  people  like  the 
Jews,  who  so  abhorred  the  making  of  an  image  of  the 
Deity  upon  the  likeness  of  anything  in  heaven  and 
earth, — we  hold  to  be  the  proper  Old  Testament 
instinct  that  the  Divine  should  take  human  form  and 
tabernacle  amongst  men.  But  this  side  of  our  subject  — 
the  relation  of  the  anthropomorphism  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment to  the  Incarnation — we  postpone  till  we  corre  to 
the  second  part  of  the  book  of  Isaiah,  in  which  the 
anthropomorphic  figures  are  more  frequent  and  daring 
than  they  are  here. 


BOOK  II. 

PROPHECIES  FROM  THE  ACCESSION  OF 
HEZEKIAH  TO  THE  DEATH  OF 
S ARGON,  727—705  B.C. 


VOL.  I, 


Isaiah  : — 

xxviii.     725  B.C. 

X.  5 — 34.     721  B.C. 

xi.,  xii.     About  720  B.C.  ? 

XX.      711  B.C. 

xxi.  I — 10.     710  B.C. 

xxxviii.,  xxxix.     Between  712  and  705  B.C. 


BOOK  II. 

THE  prophecies  with  which  we  have  been  engaged 
(chaps,  ii. — x.  4)  fall  either  before  or  during 
the  great  Assyrian  invasion  of  Syria,  undertaken  in 
734 — 732  by  Tiglath-pileser  II.,  at  the  invitation  of 
King  Ahaz.  Nobody  has  any  doubt  about  that.  But 
when  we  ask  what  prophecies  of  Isaiah  come  next  in 
chronological  order,  we  raise  a  storm  of  answers.  We 
are  no  longer  on  the  sure  ground  we  have  been 
enjoying. 

Under  the  canonical  arrangement  the  next  prophecy 
is  "  The  Woe  upon  the  Assyrian "  (x.  5 — 34).  In 
the  course  of  this  the  Assyrian  is  made  to  boast  of 
having  overthrown  Samaria  (vv.  9 — 1 1)  :  Is  not  Samaria 
as  Damascus  ?  .  .  .  Shall  I  not,  as  I  have  done  unto 
Samaria  and  her  idols,  so  do  to  Jerusalem  and  her  idols  ? 
If  Samaria  mean  the  capital  city  of  Northern  Israel — ■ 
and  the  name  is  never  used  in  these  parts  of  Scripture 
for  anything  else — and  if  the  prophet  be  quoting  a  boast 
which  the  Assyrian  was  actually  in  a  position  to  make, 
and  not  merely  imagining  a  boast,  which  he  would  be 
likely  to  make  some  years  afterwards  (an  entirely 
improbable  view,  though  held  by  one  great  scholar*), 
then  an  event  is  here  described  as  past  and  over  which 

•  Delitzsch,  who  fannies  that  the  fall  of  Samaria  is  a  completed 
affair  only  in  the  vision  of  the  prophet,  not  in  reality. 


148  THE  BOOK  OF  IS  AT  AH. 

did  not  happen  during  Tiglath-pileser's  campaign,  nor 
indeed  till  twelve  years  after  it.  Tiglath-pileser  did  not 
require  to  besiege  Samaria  in  the  campaign  of  734 — 732. 
The  king,  Pekah,  was  slain  by  a  conspiracy  of  his 
own  subjects ;  and  Hoshea,  the  ringleader,  who  suc- 
ceeded, willingly  purchased  the  stability  of  a  usurped 
throne  by  homage  and  tribute  to  the  king  of  kings. 
So  Tiglath-pileser  went  home  again,  satisfied  to  have 
punished  Israel  by  carrying  away  with  him  the  popula- 
tion of  Galilee.  During  his  reign  there  was  no  further 
appearance  of  the  Assyrians  in  Palestine,  but  at  his 
death  in  727  Hoshea,  after  the  fashion  of  Assyrian 
vassals  when  the  throne  at  Nineveh  changed  occupants, 
attempted  to  throw  off  the  j'^oke  of  the  new  king, 
Salmanassar  IV.  Along  with  the  Phoenician  and 
Philistine  cities,  Hoshea  negotiated  an  alliance  with 
So,  or  Seve,  the  Ethiopian,  a  usurper  who  had  just 
succeeded  in  establishing  his  supremacy  over  the  land 
of  the  Pharaohs.  In  a  year  Salmanassar  marched 
south  upon  the  rebels.  He  took  Hoshea  prisoner  on 
the  borders  of  his  territory  (725),  but,  not  content,  as 
his  predecessor  had  been,  '-vith  the  submission  of  the 
king,  he  came  tip  tJn'ongliout  all  the  land,  and  ivenl  up 
to  Samaria,  and  besieged  it  three  years ^'  He  did  not  live 
to  see  the  end  of  the  siege,  and  Samaria  was  taken  in 
722  by  Sargon,  his  successor.  Sargon  overthrew  the 
kingdom  and  uprooted  the  people.  The  northern  tribes 
were  carried  away  into  a  captivity,  from  which  as  tribes 
they  never  returned. 

It  was  evidently  this  complete  overthrow  of  Samaria 
by  Sargon  in  722—721,  which  Isaiah  had  behind  him 
when  he  wrote  x.  9 — 11.    We  m.ust,  therefore,  date  the 

*  2  Kings  xvii.  5. 


BOOK  II.,  727—705  B.C.  149 

prophecy  after  721,  when  nothing  was  left  as  a  bulwark 
between  Judah  and  the  Assyrian.  We  do  so  with 
reluctance.  There  is  much  in  x.  5 — 34  which  suits 
the  circumstances  of  Tiglath-pileser's  invasion.  There 
are  phrases  and  catch-words  coinciding  with  those  in 
vii. — ix.  7 ;  and  the  whole  oration  is  simply  a  more 
elaborate  expression  of  that  defiance  of  Assyria,  which 
inspires  such  of  the  previous  prophecies  as  viii.  9,  10. 
Besides,  with  the  exception  of  Samaria,  all  the  names 
in  the  Assyrian's  boastful  catalogue — Carchemish,  Calno, 
Arpad,  Hamath  and  Damascus — might  as  justly  have 
been  vaunted  by  the  lips  of  Tiglath-pileser  as  by 
those  of  Sargon.  But  in  spite  of  these  things,  which 
seem  to  vindicate  the  close  relation  of  x.  5 — 34  to  the 
prophecies  which  precede  it  in  the  canon,  the  mention 
of  Samaria  as  being  already  destroyed  justifies  us  in 
divorcing  it  from  them.  While  they  remain  dated  from 
before  732,  we  place  it  subsequent  to  722. 

Was  Isaiah,  then,  silent  these  ten  years?  Is  there 
no  prophecy  lying  farther  on  in  his  book  that  treats  of 
Samaria  as  still  standing  ?  Besides  an  address  to  the 
fallen  Damascus  in  xvii.  i — 1 1,  which  we  shall  take  later 
with  the  rest  of  Isaiah's  oracles  on  foreign  states,  there 
is  one  large  prophecy,  chap,  xxviii.,  which  opens  with 
a  description  of  the  magnates  of  Samaria  lolling  in 
drunken  security  on  their  vine-crowned  hill,  but  God's 
storms  are  ready  to  break.  Samaria  has  not  3'et  fallen, 
but  is  threatened  and  shall  fall  soon.  The  first  part 
of  chap,  xxviii.  can  only  refer  to  the  year,  in  which 
Salmanassar  advanced  upon  Samaria — 726  or  725. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  rest  of  it  to  corroborate  this 
date ;  but  the  fact,  that  there  are  several  turns  of 
thought  and  speech  very  similar  to  turns  of  thought 
and  speech  in  x.  5 — 34;  makes  us  the  bolder  to  take 


ISO  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

away  xxviii,  from  its  present  connection  with  xxix. — 
xxxii.,  and  place  it  just  before  x.  5 — 34. 

Here  then  is  our  next  group  of  prophecies,  all  dating 
from  the  first  seven  years  of  the  reign  of  Hezekiah  : 
xxviii.,  a  warning  addressed  to  the  politicians  of  Jeru- 
salem from  the  impending  fate  of  those  of  Samaria 
(date  725) ;  x.  5 — 34,  a  woe  upon  the  Assyrian  (date 
about  720),  describing  his  boasts  and  his  progress  in 
conquest  till  his  sudden  crash  by  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  ; 
xi.,  of  date  uncertain,  for  it  reflects  no  historical  cir- 
cumstance, but  standing  in  such  artistic  contrast  to  x. 
that  the  two  must  be  treated  together;  and  xii.,  a 
hymn  of  salvation,  which  forms  a  fitting  conclusion 
to  xi.  With  these  we  shall  take  the  few  fragments 
of  the  book  of  Isaiah  which  belong  to  the  fifteen  years 
720 — 705,  and  are  as  straws  to  show  how  Judah  all 
that  time  was  drifting  down  to  alliance  with  Egypt — 
XX.,  xxi.  I — 10,  and  xxxviii. — xxxix.  This  will  bring  us 
to  705,  and  the  beginning  of  a  new  series  of  prophecies, 
the  richest  of  Isaiah's  life,  and  the  subject  of  our  third 
book. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

GOD'S   COMMONPLACE. 
Isaiah  xxviii.  (about  725  b.c.) 

THE  twenty-eighth  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah 
is  one  of  the  greatest  of  his  prophecies.  It  is 
distinguished  by  that  regal  versatiUty  of  style,  which 
places  its  author  at  the  head  of  Hebrew  writers.  Keen 
analyses  of  character,  realistic  contrasts  between  sin 
and  judgement,  clever  retorts  and  epigrams,  rapids  of 
scorn,  and  "a  spate"  of  judgement,  but  for  final  issue 
a  placid  stream  of  argument  banked  by  sweet  parable — 
such  are  the  literary  charms  of  the  chapter,  which 
derives  its  moral  grandeur  from  the  force  with  which 
its  currents  set  towards  faith  and  reason,  as  together 
the  salvation  of  states,  politicians  and  private  men.  The 
style  mirrors  life  about  ourselves,  and  still  tastes  fresh 
to  thirsty  men.  ^lie  truths  are  relevant  to  every  day  in 
which  luxury  and  intemperance  abound,  in  which  there 
are  eyes  too  fevered  by  sin  to  see  beauty  in  simple 
purit}'^,  and  minds  so  surfeited  with  knowledge  or 
intoxicated  with  their  own  cleverness,  that  they  call 
the  maxims  of  moral  reason  commonplace  and  scorn 
religious  instruction  as  food  for  babes. 

Some  time  when  the  big,  black  cloud  was  gathering 
again  on  the  north,  Isaiah  raised  his  voice  to  the 
magnates  of  Jerusalem :    "  Lift  your  heads  from  your 


^/ 


152  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

wine-bowls ;  look  north.  The  sunshine  is  still  on 
Samaria,  and  your  fellow-drinkers  there  are  revelling 
in  security.  But  the  storm  creeps  up  behind.  The}^ 
shall  certainly  perish  soon  ;  even  you  cannot  help  seeing 
that.  Let  it  scare  you,  for  their  sin  is  yours,  and  that 
storm  will  not  exhaust  itself  on  Samaria.  Do  not 
think  that  your  clever  policies,  alliance  with  Egypt  or 
the  treaty  with  Assyria  herself,  shall  save  you.  Men 
are  never  saved  from  death  and  hell  by  making  cove- 
nants with  them.  Scorners  of  religion  and  righteous- 
ness, except  ye  cease  being  sceptical  and  drunken,  and 
come  back  from  your  diplomacy  to  faith  and  reason,  ye 
shall  not  be  saved  !  This  destruction  that  looms  is 
going  to  cover  the  whole  earth.  So  stop  your  running 
to  and  fro  across  it  in  search  of  alliances.  He  that 
believeth  shall  not  make  haste.  Stay  at  home  and  trust 
in  the  God  of  Zion,  for  Zion  is  the  one  thing  that  shall 
survive."  In  the  parable,  which  closes  the  prophecy, 
Isaiah  offers  some  relief  to  this  dark  prospect:  "Do 
not  think  of  God  as  a  mere  disaster-monger,  maker  of 
terrors  for  men.  He  has  a  plan,  even  in  catastrophe, 
and  this  deluge,  which  looks  like  destruction  for  all  of 
us,  has  its  method,  term  and  fruits,  just  as  much  as 
the  husbandman's  harrowing  of  the  earth  or  threshing 
of  the  corn." 

The  chapter  with  this  argument  falls  into  four 
divisions. 

I.  The  Warning  from  Samaria  (vv.  i — 6). 

They  had  always  been  hard  drinkers  in  North  Israel. 
Fifty  years  before,  Amos  flashed  judgement  on  those 
who  trusted  in  the  mount  of  Samaria,  lolling  upon  their 
couches  and  gulping  their  wine  out  of  basons,  women  as 
well  as  men.     Upon  these  same  drunkards  of  Ephraim, 


xxviii.]  CODS  COMMONPLACE.  153 

now  soaked  and  stunned  with  wine,  Isaiah  fastens  his 
Woe.  Sunny  the  sky  and  balmy  the  air  in  which  they 
He,  stretched  upon  flowers  by  the  heads  of  their  fat 
valleys — a  land  that  tempts  its  inhabitants  with  the 
security  of  perpetual  summer.  But  God's  swift  storm 
drives  up  the  valley — hail,  rain  and  violent  streams 
from  every  gorge.  Flowers,  wreaths  and  pampered 
bodies  are  trampled  in  the  mire.  The  glory  of  sunny 
Ephraim  is  as  the  first  ripe  fig  a  man  findeth,  and 
while  it  is  yet  in  his  hand,  he  eateth  it  tip.  But  while 
drunken  magnates  and  the  flowers  of  a  rich  land 
are  swept  away,  there  is  a  residue  who  can  and  do 
abide  even  that  storm,  to  whom  the  Lord  Himself  shall 
be  for  a  crown,  a  spirit  of  justice  to  him  that  sitteth  for 
Justice,  and  for  strength  to  them,  that  turn  back  the  battle  at 
the  gate. 

Isaiah's  intention  is  manifest,  and  his  effort  a  great 
one.  It  is  to  rob  passion  of  its  magic  and  change 
men's  temptations  to  their  disgusts,  by  exhibiting 
how  squalid  passion  shows  beneath  disaster,  and 
how  gloriously  purity  shines  surviving  it.  It  is  to 
strip  luxury  and  indulgence  of  their  attractiveness  by 
drenching  them  with  the  storm  of  judgement,  and  then 
not  to  leave  them  stunned,  but  to  rouse  in  them  a  moral 
admiration  and  envy  by  the  presentation  of  certain  (^ 
grand  survivals  of  the  storm — unstained  justice  and 
victorious  valour.  Isaiah  first  sweeps  the  atmosphere, 
hot  from  infective  passion,  with  the  cold  tempest  from 
the  north.  Then  in  the  clear  shining  after  rain  he  points 
to  two  figures,  which  have  preserved  through  tempta- 
tion and  disaster,  and  now  lift  against  a  smiling  sky,  the 
ideal  that  those  corrupt  judges  and  drunken  warriors 
have  dragged  into  the  mire — him  that  sitteth  for  justice,  /j 
and  him  that  turneth  bach  the  battle  at  the  gate.     The    / 


154  2"//£  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

escape  from  sensuality,  this  passage  suggests,  is  two- 
fold. There  is  the  exposure  to  nature  where  God's 
judgements  sweep  their  irresistible  way ;  and  then  from 
the  despair,  which  the  unrelieved  spectacle  of  judgement 
produces,  there  is  the  recovery  to  moral  effort  through 
the  admiration  of  those  purities  and  heroisms,  that  by 
God's  Spirit  have  survived. 

When  God  has  put  a  conscience  into  the  art  or 
literature  of  any  generation,  they  have  followed  this 
method  of  Isaiah,  but  not  always  to  the  healthy  end 
which  he  reaches.  To  show  the  slaves  of  Circe  the 
physical  disaster  impending — which  you  must  begin 
by  doing  if  you  are  to  impress  their  brutalized  minds — 
is  not  enough.  The  lesson  of  Tennyson's  "Vision  of 
Sin "  and  of  Arnold's  "  New  Sirens,"  that  night  and 
frost,  decay  and  death,  come  down  at  last  on  pampered 
sense,  is  necessary,  but  not  enough.  Who  stops  there 
remains  a  defective  and  morbid  moralist.  When  you 
have  made  the  sensual  shiver  before  the  disease  that 
inevitably  awaits  them,  you  must  go  on  to  show  that 
there  are  men  who  have  the  secret  of  surviving  the  most 
terrible  judgements  of  God,  and  lift  their  figures  calm 
and  victorious  against  the  storm-washed  sky.  Preach 
the  depravity  of  men,  but  never  apart  from  the  possi- 
bilities that  remain  in  them.  It  is  Isaiah's  health  as  a 
moralist  that  he  combines  the  two.  No  prophet  ever 
threatened  judgement  more  inexorable  and  complete 
than  he.  Yet  he  never  failed  to  tell  the  sinner,  how 
possible  it  was  for  him  to  be  different.  If  it  were 
necessary  to  crush  men  in  the  mud,  Isaiah  would  not 
leave  them  there  with  the  hearts  of  swine.  But  he  put 
conscience  in  them,  and  the  envy  of  what  was  pure, 
and  the  admiration  of  what  was  victorious.  Even  as 
they  wallowed,  he  pointed  them  to  the  figures  of  men 


xxviii.]  GOD'S  COMMONPLACE.  155 

like  themselves,  who  had  survived  and  overcome  by 
the  Spirit  of  God.  Here  we  perceive  the  ethical  possi- 
bilities, that  lay  in  his  fundamental  doctrine  of  a 
remnant.  Isaiah  never  crushed  men  beneath  the  fear 
of  judgement,  without  revealing  to  them  the  possibihty 
and  beauty  of  victorious  virtue.  Had  we  lived  in  those 
great  days,  what  a  help  he  had  been  to  us — what 
a  help  he  may  be  still ! — not  only  firm  to  declare  that 
the  wages  of  sin  is  death,  but  careful  to  effect  that  our 
humiliation  shall  not  be  despair,  and  that  even  when 
we  feel  our  shame  and  irretrievableness  the  most,  we 
shall  have  the  opportunity  to  behold  our  humanity 
crowned  and  seated  on  the  throne  from  which  we  had 
fallen,  our  humanity  driving  back  the  battle  from  the 
gate  against  which  we  had  been  hopelessly  driven ! 
That  seventh  verse  sounds  like  a  trumpet  in  the  ears 
of  enervated  and  despairing  men. 

II.  God's  Commonplace  (vv.  7 — 13). 

But  Isaiah  has  cast  his  pearls  before  swine.  The 
men  of  Jerusalem,  whom  he  addresses,  are  too  deep  in 
sensuality  to  be  roused  by  his  noble  words.  Even 
priest  and  prophet  stagger  through  strong  drink  ;  and  the 
class  that  should  have  been  the  conscience  of  the  city, 
responding  immediately  to  the  word  of  God,  reel  in 
vision  and  stumble  in  judgement.  They  turn  upon  Isaiah's 
earnest  message  with  tipsy  men's  insolence.  Verses 
9  and  10  should  be  within  inverted  commas,  for  they 
,are  the  mocking  reply  of  drunkards  over  their  cups. 
Whom  is  he  going  to  teach  knowledge,  arid  upon  whom  is  ^ 
he  trying  to  force  "  the  Message,"  as  he  calls  it  ?  Them 
that  are  weaned  from  the  milk  and  drawn  from  the 
breasts  ?  Are  we  school-children,  that  he  treats  us  with 
his    endless    platitudes    and    repetitions — precept    upon 


l^ 


156  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

precept  and  precept  upon  precept,  line  upon  line  and  line 
upon  line,  here  a  little  and  there  a  little  ?  So  did  these 
bibulous  prophets,  priests  and  pohticians  mock  Isaiah's 
messages  of  judgement,  wagging  their  heads  in  mimicry 
of  his  simple,  earnest  tones.  "  We  must  conceive 
the  abrupt,  intentionally  short,  reiterated  and  almost 
childish  words  of  verse  lO  as  spoken  in  mimicry,  with 
a  mocking  motion  of  the  head,  and  in  a  childish, 
stammering,  taunting  tone."* 

But  Isaiah  turns  upon  them  with  their  own  words  : 
"  You  call  me.  Stammerer  !  I  tell  you  that  God,  Who 
speaks  through  me,  and  Whom  in  me  you  mock,  will 
one  day  speak  again  to  you  in  a  tongue  that  shall  indeed 
sound  stammering  to  you.  When  those  far-off  bar- 
barians have  reached  your  walls,  and  over  them  taunt 
you  in  uncouth  tones,  then  shall  you  hear  how  God  can 
stammer.  For  these  shall  be  the  very  voice  of  Him, 
and  as  He  threatens  you  with  captivity  it  shall  be  your 
bitterness  to  remember  how  by  me  He  once  offered 
you  a  rest  and  refreshing,  which  you  refused.  I  tell 
you  more.  God  will  not  only  speak  in  words,  but  in 
deeds,  and  then  truly  your  nickname  for  His  message 
shall  be  fulfilled  to  you.  Then  shall  the  word  of  the 
Lord  be  unto  you  precept  upon  precept,  precept  upon 
precept,  line  upon  line,  line  upon  line,  here  a  little  and 
there  a  little.  For  God  shall  speak  with  the  terrible 
simphcity  and  slowness  of  deeds,  with  the  gradual 
growth  of  fate,  with  the  monotonous  stages  of  decay,^ 
till  step  by  step  you  go,  and  stumble  backward,  and 
be  broken,  and  snared,  and  taken.  You  have  scorned  . 
my  instruction  as  monosyllables  fit  for  children !     By 


*  Ewald.     The  original  runs  thus  :  "  Ki  tsav  la-tsav,  tsav  la-tsav, 
qav  !a-qav,  qav  la-qav;  z'eir  sham  z'eir  sham." 


xxviii.]  GOD'S  COMMONPLACE.  l$^ 

irritating  monosyllables  of  gradual  penalty  shall    God        ^ 
instruct  you  the  second  time." 

This  is  not  only  a  very  clever  and  cynical  retort, 
but  the  statement  of  a  moral  principle.  We  gather 
from  Isaiah  that  God  speaks  twice  to  men,  first  in 
words  and  then  by  deeds,  but  both  times  very  simply  and  A 
plainly.  And  if  men  deride  and  abuse  the  simphcity  of 
the  former,  if  they  ignore  moral  and  religious  truths 
because  they  are  elementary,  and  rebel  against  the 
quiet  reiteration  of  simple  voices,  with  which  God  sees 
it  most  healthy  to  conduct  their  education,  then  they  shall 
be  stunned  by  the  commonplace  pertinacity,  with  which 
the  effects  of  their  insolence  work  themselves  out  in  life. 
God's  ways  with  men  are  mostly  commonplace ;  that  is 
the  hardest  lesson  we  have  to  learn.  The  tongue  of 
conscience  speaks  like  the  tongue  of  time,  prevaihngly 
by  ticks  and  moments ;  not  in  undue  excitement  of 
soul  and  body,  not  in  the  stirring  up  of  our  passions 
nor  by  enlisting  our  ambitions,  not  in  thunder  nor  in 
startling  visions,  but  by  everyday  precepts  of  faithfulness, 
honour  and  purity,  to  which  conscience  has  to  rise 
unwinged  by  fancy  or  ambition,  and  dreadfully  weigli ted 
with  the  dreariness  of  life.  If  we,  carried  away  upon  the 
rushing  interests  of  the  world,  and  with  our  appetite 
spoiled  by  the  wealth  and  piquancy  of  intellectual  know- 
ledge, despise  the  simple  monitions  of  conscience  and 
Scripture,  as  uninteresting  and  childish,  this  is  the  risk 
we  run, — that  God  will  speak  to  us  in  another,  and 
this  time  unshirkable,  kind  of  commonplace.  What  that 
is  we  shall  understand,  when  a  career  of  dissipation  or 
unscrupulous  ambition  has  bereft  life  of  all  interest  and 
joy,  when  one  enthusiasm  after  another  grows  dull,  and 
one  pleasure  after  another  tasteless,  when  all  the  little 
things  of  life  preach  to  us  of  judgement,  and  the  grass- 


158  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

hopper  becometh  a  burden^  and  we,  slowly  descending 
through  the  drab  and  monotony  of  decay,  suffer  the  last 
great  commonplace,  death.  There  can  be  no  greater 
irony  than  for  the  soul,  which  has  sinned  by  too  greedily 
seeking  for  sensation,  to  find  sensation  absent  even 
from  the  judgements  she  has  brouglit  upon  herself. 
Poor  Heine's  Confessions  acknowledge,  at  once  with 
the  appreciation  of  an  artist  and  the  pain  of  a  victim,, 
the  satire,  with  which  the  Almighty  inflicts,  in  the  way 
that  Isaiah  describes,  His  penalties  upon  sins  of  sense. 

III.  Covenants  with  Death  and  Hell  (vv.  14 — 22). 

To  Isaiah's  threats  of  destruction,  the  politicians  of 
j^  Jerusalem  replied,  We  have  bought  destruction  off! 
They  meant  some  treaty  with  a  foreign  power.  Diplo- 
macy is  always  obscure,  and  at  that  distance  its  details 
are  buried  for  us  in  impenetrable  darkness.  But  we 
may  safely  conclude  that  it  was  either  the  treaty  of 
Ahaz  with  Assyria,  or  some  counter-treaty  executed 
with  Egypt  since  this  power  began  again  to  rise  into 
pretentiousness,  or  more  probably  still  it  was  a  secret 
^y^  agreement  with  the  southern  power,  while  the  open 
treaty  with  the  northern  was  yet  in  force.  Isaiah,  from 
the  way  in  which  he  speaks,  seems  to  have  been  in 
ignorance  of  all,  except  that  the  politician's  boast  was 
an  unhallowed,  underhand  intrigue,  accomplished  by 
much  swindling  and  false  conceit  of  cleverness.  This 
wretched  subterfuge  Isaiah  exposes  in  some  of  the 
most  powerful  sentences  he  ever  uttered.  A  faithless 
diplomacy  was  never  more  thoroughly  laid  bare,  in  its 
miserable  mixture  of  political  pedantry  and  falsehood. 

Therefore  hear  the  word  of  Jehovah,  ye  men  of  scorn, 
rulers  of  this  people,  which  is  in  Jerusalem  ! 

Because  ye  have  said,  We  have  entered  into  a  covenant 


xxviii.]  CODS  COMMONPLACE.  159 

wi/h  Death,  and  with  Hell  have  we  made  a  bargain ;  the 
"  Overjhiving  Scourge"  a  current  phrase  of  Isaiah's 
which  they  fling  back  in  his  teeth,  when  it  passctJi 
along,  shall  not  come  unto  us,  for  we  have  set  lies  as 
our  rejuge,  and  in  falsehood  have  we  hidden  ourselves 
[the  prophet's  penetrating  scorn  drags  up  into  their 
boast  the  secret  conscience  of  their  hearts,  that  after 
all  lies  did  form  the  basis  of  this  political  arrangement], 
therefore  thus  saith  the  Lord  fehovah :  Behold,  I  lay  in 
Zion  for  Joundation  a  stone,  a  tried  stone,  a  precious 
corner-stone  of  sure  foundation  :  he  that  believeth  shall 
not  make  haste.  No  need  of  swift  couriers  to  Egypt, 
and  fret  and  fever  of  poor  political  brains  in  Jerusalem  ! 
The  word  make  haste  is  onomatopoetic,  like  our  fuss, 
and,  if  fuss  may  be  applied  to  the  conduct  of  high 
affairs  of  state,  its  exact  equivalent  in  meaning. 

And  I  will  set  justice  for  a  line,  and  righteousness  for 
a  plummet,  and  hail  shall  sweep  away  the  subterfuge  oj 
lies,  and  the  secrecy  shall  waters  overflow.  And  cancelled 
shall  be  your  covenant  with  Death,  and  your  bargain  with 
Hell  shall  not  stand. 

"  The  Overflowing  Scourge,"  indeed  I  When  it  passeth 
over,  then  ye  shall  be  unto  it  for  trampling.  As  often  as 
it  passeth  over,  it  shall  take  you  away,  for  morning  by 
morning  shall  it  pass  over,  by  day  and  by  night.  Then 
shall  it  be  sheer  terror  to  realize  "  the  Message "  /  Too 
late  then  for  anything  else.  Had  you  realized  "  the 
Message  "  now,  what  rest  and  refreshing !  But  then 
only  terror. 

For  the   bed  is  shorter  than  that  a  man  can  stretch  ^ 
himself  upon  it,  and  the  covering  narrower  than  that  he 
can   wrap  himself  in  it.      This    proverb   seems    to    be 
struck  out  of  the  prophet  by  the  belief  of  the  politicians, 
that  they  are  creating  a  stable  and  restful  policy  for 


ibo  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

Judah.  It  flashes  an  aspect  of  hopeless  uneasiness 
over  the  whole  political  situation.  However  they 
make  their  bed,  with  Egypt's  or  Assyria's  help,  they 
shall  not  find  it  comfortable.  No  cleverness  of  theirs 
can  create  a  satisfactory  condition  of  affairs,  no 
political  arrangement,  nothing  short  of  faith,  of  abso- 
lute reliance  on  that  bare  foundation-stone  laid  in 
Zion, — God's  assurance  that  Jerusalem  is  inviolable. 

For  Jehovah  shall  arise  as  on  Mount  Peratsim ;  He 
shall  be  stirred  as  in  the  valley  of  Gibeon,  to  do  His  deed 
— strange  is  this  deed  of  His,  and  to  bring  to  pass  His 
act — strange  is  His  act. 

Now,  therefore,  play  no  more  the  scorner,  lest  your  bands 
be  made  tight,  for  a  consumption,  and  that  determined 
have  I  heard  from  the  Lord,  Jehovah  of  hosts,  upon  tht 
whole  earth.  This  finishes  the  matter.  Possibility  of 
alliance  there  is  for  sane  men  nowhere  in  this  world 
of  Western  Asia,  so  evidently  near  convulsion.  Only 
the  foundation-stone  in  Zion  shall  be  left.    Cling  to  that ! 

When  the  pedantic  members  of  the  General  Assembly 
of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  in  the  year  1650,  were  clinging 
with  all  the  grip  of  their  hard  logic,  but  with  very  little 
heart,  to  the  "  Divine  right  of  kings,"  and  attempting 
an  impossible  state,  whose  statute-book  was  to  be  the 
Westminster  Confession,  and  its  chief  executive  officer 
King  Charles  II.,  Cromwell,  then  encamped  at  Mussel- 
burgh, sent  them  that  letter  in  which  the  famous 
sentence  occurs :  "  I  beseech  you  in  the  bowels  of 
Christ,  think  it  possible  you  may  be  mistaken.  Precept 
may  be  upon  precept,  line  may  be  upon  line,"  he  goes 
on  to  say,  "  and  yet  the  Word  of  the  Lord  may  be  to 
some  a  word  of  Judgement ;  that  they  may  fall  back- 
ward, and  be  broken,  and  be  snared,  and  be  taken  ! 
There  may  be  a  spiritual  fulness,  which  the  world  may 


xxviii.]  GOD'S  COM MO^ PLACE.  i6i 

cal!  drunkenness  ;  as  in  the  second  Chapter  of  the  Acts. 
There  may  be,  as  well,  a  carnal  confidence  upon  mis- 
understood and  misapplied  precepts,  which  ma}^  be 
called  spiritual  drunkenness.  There  may  be  a  Covenant 
made  with  Death  and  Hell  !  I  will  not  say  yours  was 
so.  But  judge  if  such  things  have  a  politic  aim  :  To 
avoid  the  overflowing  scourge ;  or,  To  accomplish 
worldly  interests  ?  And  if  therein  you  have  confede- 
rated with  wicked  and  carnal  men,  and  have  respect  for 
them,  or  otherwise  have  drawn  them  in  to  associate 
with  us,  Whether  this  be  a  covenant  of  God  and 
spiritual?     Bethink  yourselves;    we  hope  we  do. 

"  I  pray  you  read  the  Twenty-eighth  of  Isaiah,  from 
the  fifth  to  the  fifteenth  verse.  And  do  not  scorn  to 
know  that  it  is  the  Spirit  that  quickens  and  giveth 
life."  * 

Cromwell,  as  we  have  said,  is  the  best  commentator 
Isaiah  has  ever  had,  and  that  by  an  instinct  born,  not 
only  of  the  same  faith,  but  of  experience  in  tackling 
similar  sorts  of  character.  In  this  letter  he  is  dealing, 
like  Isaiah,  with  stubborn  pedants,  who  are  endeavour- 
ing to  fasten  the  national  fortunes  upon  a  Procrustean 
policy.  The  diplomacy  of  Jerusalem  was  very  clever ; 
the  Covenanting  ecclesiasticism  of  Edinburgh  was 
logical  and  consistent.  But  a  Jewish  alliance  with 
Assyria  and  the  attempt  of  Scotsmen  to  force  their 
covenant  upon  the  whole  United  Kingdom  were 
equally  sheer  impossibilities.  In  either  case  the  bed 
was  shorter  than  that  a  man  could  stretch  himself  on  it, 
and  the  covering  narrower  than  that  he  coidd  wrap  him- 
self in  it.  Both,  too,  were  covenants  with  Death  and  Hell; 
for  if  the  attempt  of  the  Scots  to   secure   Charles  II. 

•  Croniwcirs  Letters  and  Speeches,  Letter  cxxxvi. 
VOL.  I.  II 


l/ 


:62  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

by  the  Covenant  was  free  from  the  falsehood  of  Jewish 
diplomacy,  it  was  fatally  certain  if  successful  to  have 
led  to  the  subversion  of  their  highest  religious  interests  ; 
and  history  has  proved  that  Cromwell  was  no  more 
than  just  in  applying  to  it  the  strong  expressions,  which 
Isaiah  uses  of  Judah's  ominous  treaties  with  the 
unscrupulous  heathen.  Over  against  so  pedantic  an 
idea,  as  that  of  forcing  the  life  of  the  three  nations  into 
the  mould  of  the  one  Covenant,  and  so  fatal  a  folly 
as  the  attempt  to  commit  the  interests  of  religion  to  the 
keeping  of  the  dissolute  and  perjured  king,  Cromwell 
stands  in  his  great  toleration  of  everj^thing  but  un- 
righteousness and  his  strong  conviction  of  three  truths: — 
that  the  religious  life  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  was 
too  rich  and  varied  for  the  Covenant :  that  national  and 
religious  interests  so  complicated  and  precious  could 
be  decided  only  upon  the  plainest  principles  of  faith 
and  justice :  and  that,  tested  by  these  principles, 
Charles  II.  and  his  crew  were  as  utterly  without  worth 
to  the  nation  and  as  pregnant  with  destruction,  as 
Isaiah  felt  Assyria  and  Egypt  to  be  to  Judah.  The 
battle-cries  of  the  two  parties  at  Dunbar  are  significant 
of  the  spiritual  difference  between  them.  That  of  the 
Scots  was  "The  Covenant!"  Cromwell's  was  Isaiah's 
own,  "The  Lord  of  hosts  ! "  However  logical,  religious 
and  sincere  theirs  might  be,  it  was  at  the  best  a 
scheme  of  men  too  narrow  for  events,  and  fatally 
compromised  by  its  association  with  Charles  II.  But 
Cromwell's  battle-cry  required  only  a  moderately  sin- 
cere faith  from  those  who  adopted  it,  to  ensure  their 
victory.  For  to  them  it  meant  just  what  it  had  meant 
to  Isaiah,  loyalty  to  a  Divine  providence,  supreme  in 
righteousness,  the  willingness  to  be  guided  by  events, 
interpreting  them  by  no  tradition  or  scheme,  but  only 


xxviii.]  GOnS   COMMONPLACE.  163 

Dy  conscience.  He  who  understands  this  will  be  able 
to  see  which  side  was  right  in  that  strange  civil  war, 
where  both  so  sincerely  claimed  to  be  Scriptural. 

It  may  be  wondered  why  we  spend  so  much  argument 
on  comparing  the  attempt  to  force  Charles  II.  into  the 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant  with  the  impious  treaty  of 
Judah  with  the  heathen.  But  the  argument  has  not  been 
wasted,  if  it  have  shown  how  even  sincere  and  religious/ 
men  may  make  covenants  with  death,  and  even  Church 
creeds  and  constitutions  become  beds  too  short  that  a  ■ 
man  may  lie  upon  them,  coverings  narrower  than  that  he 
can  wrap  himself  in  them.  Not  once  or  twice  has 
it  happened  that  an  old  and  hallowed  constitution  has 
become,  in  the  providence  of  God,  unfit  for  the  larger 
life  of  a  people  or  of  a  Church,  and  yet  is  clung  to 
by  parties  in  that  Church  or  people  from  motives 
of  theological  pedantry  or  ecclesiastical  cowardice. 
Sooner  or  later  a  crisis  is  sure  to  arrive,  in  which  the 
defective  creed  has  to  match  itself  against  some  interest 
of  justice  ;  and  then  endless  compromises  have  to  be 
entertained,  that  discover  themselves  perilously  like  bar- 
gains with  hell.  If  we  of  this  generation  have  to  make  a 
public  application  of  the  twenty-eighth  chapter  of  Isaiah, 
it  lies  in  this  direction.  There  are  few  things,  to  which 
his  famous  proverb  of  the  short  bed  can  be  applied 
more  aptly,  than  to  the  attempt  to  fasten  down  the 
religious  life  and  thought  of  the  present  age  too 
rigorously  upon  a  creed  of  the  fashion  of  two  or  three 
hundred  years  ago. 

But  Isaiah's  words  have  wider  application.     Short  of 

■  ^    faith  as  he  exemplified  it,  there  is  no  possibility  for  the 

spirit  of  man  to  be  free  from  uneasiness.     It  is  so  all 

along  the  scale  of  human   endeavour.      No  power  of 

patience  or  of  hope  is  his,  who  cannot  imagine  possi- 


i64  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

bilities  of  truth  outside  his  own  opinions,  nor  trust  a 
justice  larger  than  his  private  rights.  It  is  here  very 
often  that  the  real  test  of  our  faith  meets  us.  If  we 
seek  to  fit  life  solely  to  the  conception  of  our  privileges, 
if  in  the  preaching  of  our  opinions  no  mystery  of  higher 
truth  awe  us  at  least  into  reverence  and  caution  ;  then, 
whatever  religious  creeds  we  profess,  we  are  not  men 
of  faith,  but  shall  surely  inherit  the  bitterness  and 
turmoil  that  are  the  portion  of  unbelievers.  If  we 
make  it  the  chief  aim  of  our  politics  to  drive  cheap 
bargains  for  our  trade  or  to  be  consistent  to  party  or 
class  interests ;  if  we  trim,  our  conscience  to  popular 
opinion  ;  if  we  sell  our  honesty  in  business  or  our  love 
in  miarriage,  that  we  may  be  comfortable  in  the  world ; 
then,  however  firmly  we  be  established  in  reputation  or 
in  welfare,  we  have  given  our  spiritual  nature  a  support 
utterly  inadequate  to  its  needs,  and  we  shall  never 
find  rest.  Sooner  or  later,  a  man  must  feel  the  pinch 
of  having  cut  his  life  short  of  the  demands  of  conscience. 
Only  a  generous  loyalty  to  her  decrees  will  leave  him 
freedom  of  heart  and  room  for  his  arm  to  swing.  Nor 
will  any  philosophy,  however  comprehensive,  nor  poetic 
fancy,  however  elastic,  be  able  without  the  complement 
of  faith  to  arrange,  to  account  for,  or  to  console  us  for, 
the  actual  facts  of  experience.  It  is  only  belief  in  the 
God  of  Isaiah,  a  true  and  loving  God,  omnipotent  Ruler 
of  our  life,  that  can  bring  us  peace.  There  was  never 
a  sorrow,  that  did  not  find  explanation  in  that,  never  a 
tired  thought,  that  would  not  cling  to  it.  There  are  no 
interests  so  scattered  nor  energies  so  far-reaching  that 
there  is  not  return  and  rest  for  them  under  the  shadow 
of  His  wings.  He  that  believeth  sJiall  not  make  haste. 
Be  still,  says  a  psalm  of  the  same  date  as  Isaiah — Be 
still,  and  know  that  I  am  God. 


xxviii.J  GOD'S   COMMONPLACE,  165 

IV.  The  Almighty  the  All-methodical  (vv.  23 — 29). 
The  patience  of  faith,  which  Isaiah  has  so  nobly 
preached,  he  now  proceeds  to  vindicate  by  reason.  But 
the  vindication  implies  that  his  audience  are  already  in 
another  mood.  From  confidence  in  their  clever  diplo- 
macy, heedless  of  the  fact  that  God  has  His  own  purposes 
concerning  them,  they  have  swung  round  to  despair 
before  His  judgements.  Their  despair,  however,  is 
due  to  the  same  fault  as  their  careless  confidence — 
the  forgetfulness  that  God  works  by  counsel  and 
method.  Even  a  calamity,  so  universal  and  extreme  as 
that,  of  whose  certainty  the  prophet  has  now  convinced 
them,  has  its  measure  and  its  term.  To  persuade  the 
crushed  and  superstitious  Jews  of  this,  Isaiah  employs 
a  parable.  "  You  know,"  he  says,  "  the  husbandman. 
Have  you  ever  seen  him  keep  on  harrowing  and  break- 
ing the  clods  of  his  land  for  mere  sport,  and  without 
farther  intention  ?  Does  not  the  harrowing  time  lead  [0 
to  the  sowing  time  ?  Or  again,  when  he  threshes  his  ' 
crops,  does  he  thresh  for  ever  ?  Is  threshing  the  end 
he  has  in  view  ?  Look,  how  he  varies  the  rigour  of  his 
instrument  by  the  kind  of  plant  he  threshes.  For 
delicate  plants,  like  fitches  and  cummin,  he  does  not 
use  the  threshing  sledge  with  the  sharp  teeth,  or  the 
lumbering  roller,  bnt  the  fitches  are  beaten  out  with  a 
staff  and  the  cummin  with  a  rod.  And  in  the  case  of 
bread  corn,  which  needs  his  roller  and  horses,  he  does 
not  use  these  upon  it  till  it  is  all  crushed  to  dust." 
The  application  of  this  parable  is  very  evident.  If 
the  husbandman  be  so  methodical  and  careful,  shall 
the  God  who  taught  him  not  also  be  so  ?  If  the 
violent  treatment  of  land  and  fruits  be  so  measured 
and  adapted  for  their  greater  fruitfulness  and  purity, 
ought   we  not   to   trust  God   to  have  the  same  inten- 


1 66  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAUH. 

tions  in  His  violent  treatment  of  His  people  ?  Isaiah 
here  returns  to  his  fundamental  gospel :  that  the 
Almighty  is  the  All-methodical,  too.  Men  forget  this. 
In  their  times  of  activity  they  think  God  indifferent ; 
they  are  too  occupied  with  their  own  schemes  for  shap- 
ing life,  to  imagine  that  He  has  any.  In  days  of  suffer- 
l  ing,  again,  when  disaster  bursts,  they  conceive  of  God 
;  only  as  force  and  vengeance.  Yet,  says  Isaiah,  Jehovah 
of  hosts  is  wonderful  in  counsel,  and  excellent  in  that  sort 
of  wisdom  which  causes  things  to  succeed.  This  last  word 
of  the  chapter  is  very  expressive.  It  literally  means 
furtherance,  help,  salvation,  and  then  the  true  wisdom 
or  insight  which  ensures  these :  the  wisdom  which  carries 
things  through.  It  splendidly  sums  up  Isaiah's  gospel  to 
the  Jews,  cowering  like  dogs  before  the  coming  calamity  : 
God  is  not  mere  force  or  vengeance.  His  judgements 
are  not  chaos.  But  He  is  wonderful  in  counsel,  and  all 
His  ways  \i2c\!&  furtlierance  or  salvation  for  their  end. 

We  have  said  this  is  one  of  the  finest  prophecies  of 
Isaiah.  His  political  foresight  was  admirable,  when  he 
alone  of  his  countrymen  predicted  the  visitation  of 
Assyria  upon  Judah.  But  now,  when  all  are  convinced 
of  it,  how  still  more  wonderful  does  he  seem  facing  that 
novel  disaster,  with  the  whole  world's  force  behind  it,  and 
declaring  its  limit.  He  has  not  the  temptation,  so 
strong  in  prophets  of  judgement,  to  be  a  mere  disaster- 
monger,  and  leave  judgement  on  the  horizon  unrelieved. 
Nor  is  he  afraid,  as  other  predicters  of  evil  have  been, 
of  the  monster  he  has  summoned  to  the  land.  The 
secret  of  this  is  that  from  the  first  he  predicted  the 
Assyrian  invasion,  not  out  of  any  private  malice  nor 
merely  by  superior  political  foresight,  but  because  he 
knew — and  knew,  as  he  tells  us,  by  the  inspiration  of 
God's  own  Spirit — that  God  required  such  an  instru- 


xxviii.]  GOD'S  COMMONPLACE.  167 

mcnt  to  punish  the  unrighteousness  of  Judah.  If  the 
enemy  was  summoned  by  God  at  the  first,  surely  till 
the  last  the  enemy  shall  be  in  God's  hand. 

To  this  enemy  we  are  now  to  see  Isaiah  turn  with 
the  same  message  he  has  delivered  to  the  men  of 
Jerusalem. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

ATHEISM  OF  FORCE  AND  ATHEISM  OF  FEAR. 
Isaiah  x.  5 — 34  (about  721  b.c). 

IN  chap,  xxviii.  Isaiah,  speaking  in  the  year  725  when 
Salmanassar  IV.  was  marching  on  Samaria,  had 
explained  to  the  poHticians  of  Jerusalem  how  entirely 
the  Assyrian  host  was  in  the  hand  of  Jehovah  for  the 
punishment  of  Samaria  and  the  punishment  and  purifi- 
cation of  Judah.  The  invasion  which  in  that  year 
loomed  so  awful  was  not  unbridled  force  of  destruction, 
implying  the  utter  annihilation  of  God's  people,  as 
Damascus,  Arpad  and  Hamath  had  been  annihilated. 
It  was  Jehovah's  instrument  for  purifying  His  people, 
with  its  appointed  term  and  its  glorious  intentions  of 
fruitful ness  and  peace. 

In  the  tenth  chapter  Isaiah  turns  with  this  truth  to 
defy  the  Assyrian  himself  It  is  four  years  later. 
Samaria  has  fallen.  The  judgement,  which  the  prophet 
spoke  upon  the  luxurious  capital,  has  been  fulfilled.  All 
Ephraim  is  an  Assyrian  province.  Judah  stands  for 
the  first  time  face  to  face  with  Assyria.  From  Samaria 
to  the  borders  of  Judah  is  not  quite  two  days'  march, 
to  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  a  little  over  two.  Now  shall 
the  Jews  be  able  to  put  to  the  test  their   prophet's 


X.  S-34]        ATHEISM  OF  FORCE  AND  FEAR.  169 

promise !  What  can  possibly  prevent  Sargon  from 
making  Zion  as  Samaria,  and  carrying  her  people  away 
in  the  track  of  the  northern  tribes  to  captivity  ? 

There  was  a  very  fallacious  human  reason,  and  there 
was  a  very  sound  Divine  one. 

The  fallacious  human  reason  was  the  alliance  which 
Ahaz  had  made  with  Assyria.  In  what  state  that  alliance 
now  was,  does  not  clearly  appear,  but  the  most 
optimist  of  the  Assyrian  party  at  Jerusalem  could  not, 
after  all  that  had  happened,  be  feeling  quite  comfortable 
about  it.  The  Assyrian  was  as  unscrupulous  as  them- 
selves. There  was  too  much  impetus  in  the  rush  of 
his  northern  floods  to  respect  a  tiny  province  like 
Judah,  treaty  or  no  treaty.  Besides,  Sargon  had  as 
good  reason  to  suspect  Jerusalem  of  intriguing  with 
Egypt,  as  he  had  against  Samaria  or  the  Philistine 
cities  ;  and  the  Assyrian  kings  had  already  shown  their 
meaning  of  the  covenant  with  Ahaz  by  stripping  Judah 
of  enormous  tribute. 

So  Isaiah  discounts  in  this  prophecy  Judah's  treaty 
with  Assyria.  He  speaks  as  if  nothing  was  likely  to  pre- 
vent the  Assyrian's  immediate  march  upon  Jerusalem. 
He  puts  into  Sargon's  mouth  the  intention  of  this,  and 
makes  him  boast  of  the  ease  with  which  it  can  be 
accomplished  (vv.  7 — 11).  In  the  end  of  the  prophecy 
he  even  describes  the  probable  itinerary  of  the  invader 
from  the  borders  of  Judah  to  his  arrival  on  the  heights, 
over  against  the  Holy  Cit}'  (vv.  27  last  clause  to  32).* 

Cometh  up  from  the  North  the  Destroyer. 

*  It  will  be  noticed  that  in  the  above  version  a  different  reading 
is  adopted  from  the  meaningless  clause  at  the  end  of  verse  27  in 
the  English  version,  out  of  which  a  proper  heading  for  the  subsequent 
itinerary  has  been  obtained  by  Robertson  Smith  {Journal  of  PhilO' 
logy,  1884,  p.  62). 


I70  THE  BOOK   OF  ISATAFI. 

He  is  come  upon  Ai ;  marclicth  througJi  Migron;  at 
Michrnash  musters  his  baggage. 

They  have  passed  through  the  Pass ;  "  Let  Geba  be 
our  bivouac.''^ 

Terror-struck  is  Ramoh  ;  Gibcah  of  Sau.l  hath  fled. 

Make  shrill  thy  voice,  O  daugJilcr  of  Gallim  !  Listen, 
Laishah  !     Answer  her,  Anathoth  ! 

In  mad  flight  is  Madmenah;  the  dwellers  in  Gebim 
gather  their  stuff  to  flee. 

This  very  day  he  halteih  at  Nob ;  he  waveth  his  hand 
at  the  Mount  of  the  Daughter  of  Zion,  the  Hill  of 
ferusalcm. 

This  is  not  actual  fact ;  but  it  is  vision  of  what  may 
take  place  to-day  or  to-morrow.  For  there  is  nothing 
— not  even  that  miserable  treaty — to  prevent  such  a 
violation  of  Jewish  territory,  within  which,  it  ought  to 
be  kept  in  mind,  lie  all  the  places  named  by  the  prophet. 

But  the  invasion  of  Judah  and  the  arrival  of  the 
Assyrian  on  the  heights  over  against  Jerusalem  does 
not  mean  that  the  Holy  City  and  the  shrine  of  Jehovah 
of  hosts  are  to  be  destroyed ;  does  not  mean  that  all 
the  prophecies  of  Isaiah  about  the  security  of  this  rally- 
ing-place  for  the  reminant  of  God's  people  are  to  be 
annulled,  and  Israel  annihilated.  For  just  at  the 
moment  of  the  Assyrian's  triumph,  when  he  brandishes 
his  hand  over  Jerusalem,  as  if  he  would  harry  it  like  a 
bird's  nest,  Isaiah  beholds  him  struck  down,  and  crash 
like  the  fall  of  a  whole  Lebanon  of  cedars  (vv.  33,  34). 

Behold  the  Lord,  fehovah  of  hosts,  lopping  the  topmost 
boughs  ivith  a  sudden  crash, 

And  the  high  ones  of  stature  hewn  down,  and  the  lofty 
are  brotight  low  ! 

Yea,  He  moweth  dozvn  the  thickets  of  the  forest  with 
iron,  and  Lebanon  by  a  Mighty  One  falleth. 


X.  5—34]       ATHEISM  OF  FORCE  AND  FEAR.  171 

All  this  is  poetry.  We  are  not  to  suppose  that  the 
prophet  actually  expected  the  Assyrian  to  take  the  route, 
which  he  has  laid  down  for  him  with  so  much  detail.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  Sargon  did  not  advance  across  the  Jewish 
frontier,  but  turned  away  by  the  coast-land  of  Philistia 
to  meet  his  enemy  of  Egypt,  whom  he  defeated  at 
Rafia,  and  then  went  home  to  Nineveh,  leaving  Judah 
alone.  And,  although  some  twenty  years  later  the 
Assyrian  did  appear  before  Jerusalem,  as  threatening 
as  Isaiah  describes,  and  was  cut  down  in  as  sudden  and 
miraculous  a  manner,  yet  it  was  not  by  the  itinerary 
Isaiah  here  marked  for  him  that  he  came,  but  in  quite 
another  direction  :  from  the  south-west.  What  Isaiah 
merely  insists  upon  is  that  there  is  nothing  in  that 
wretched  treaty  of  Ahaz — that  fallacious  human  reason 
— to  keep  Sargon  from  overrunning  Judah  to  the  very 
walls  of  Jerusalem,  but  that,  even  though  he  does  so, 
there  is  a  most  sure  Divine  reason  for  the  Holy  City 
remaining  inviolate. 

The  Assyrian  expected  to  take  Jerusalem.  But  he 
is  not  his  own  master.  Though  he  knows  it  not,  and 
his  only  instinct  is  that  of  destruction  (ver.  7),  he 
is  the  rod  in  God's  hand.  And  when  God  shall  have 
used  him  for  the  needed  punishment  of  Judah,  then  will 
God  visit  upon  him  his  arrogance  and  brutality.  This 
man,  who  says  he  will  exploit  the  v/hole  earth  as 
he  harries  a  bird's  nest  (ver.  14),  who  believes 
in  nothing  but  himself,  saying,  By  the  strength  of  my 
hand  I  have  done  it,  and  by  my  wisdontyfor  I  am  prudent, 
is  but  the  instrument  of  God,  and  all  his  boasting  is 
that  of  the  axe  against  him  that  heweth  therewith  and  of 
the  saw  against  him  that  wicldeth  it.  As  if,  says  the 
prophet,  with  a  scorn  still  fresh  for  those  who  make 
material  force  the  ultimate  power  in  the  universe — As 


172  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

if  a  rod  shoitld  shake  them  that  lift  it  up,  or  as  if  a  staff 
should  lift  tip  him  that  is  not  wood.  By  the  way,  Isaiah 
has  a  word  for  his  countrymen.  What  folly  is  theirs, 
who  now  put  all  their  trust  in  this  W'Orld-force,  and  at 
another  time  cov/er  in  abject  fear  before  it !  Must  he 
again  bid  them  look  higher,  and  see  that  Assyria  is 
only  the  agent  in  God's  work  of  first  punishing  the 
whole  land,  but  afterwards  redeeming  His  people!  In 
the  midst  of  denunciation  the  prophet's  stern  voice  breaks 
into  the  promise  of  this  later  hope  (vv.  24 — 27a)  ;  and  at 
last  the  crash  of  the  fallen  Assyrian  is  scarcely  still, 
before  Isaiah  has  begun  to  declare  a  most  glorious 
future  of  grace  for  Israel.  But  this  carries  us  over  into 
the  eleventh  chapter,  and  we  had  better  first  of  all 
gather  up  the  lessons  of  the  tenth. 

This  prophecy  of  Isaiah  contains  a  great  Gospel  and 
two  great  Protests,  which  the  prophet  was  enabled  to 
make  in  the  strength  of  it :  one  against  the  Atiieism  of 
Force,  and  one  against  the  Atheism  of  Fear. 

The  Gospel  of  the  chapter  is  just  that  which  we  have 
already  emphasized  as  the  gospel  par  excellence  of 
Isaiah :  the  Lord  exalted  in  righteousness,  God 
supreme  over  the  supremest  men  and  forces  of  the 
world.  But  we  now  see  it  carried  to  a  height  of  daring 
not  reached  before.  This  was  the  first  time  that 
any  man  faced  the  sovereign  force  of  the  world  in  the 
full  sweep  of  victory,  and  told  himself  and  his  fellow- 
men  :  "  This  is  not  travelling  in  the  greatness  of  its  own 
strength,  but  is  simply  a  dead,  unconscious  instrument 
in  the  hand  of  God."  Let  us,  at  the  cost  of  a  little 
repetition,  get  at  the  heart  of  this.  We  shall  find  it 
wonderfully  modern. 

Belief  in  God  had  hitherto  been  local  and  circum- 
scribed.    Each  nation,  as  Isaiah  tells  us,  had  walked  in 


X.  5— 34-]       ATHEISM  OF  FORCE  AND  FEAR.  173 

the  name  of  its  god,  and  limited  his  power  and  pre- 
visijn  to  its  own  hfe  and  territory.  We  do  not 
blame  the  peoples  for  this.  Their  conception  of  God 
was  narrow,  because  their  life  was  narrow,  and  they 
confined  the  power  of  their  deity  to  their  own  borders 
because,  in  fact,  their  thoughts  seldom  strayed  beyond. 
But  now  the  barriers,  that  had  so  long  enclosed 
mankind  in  narrow  circles,  were  being  broken  down. 
Men's  thoughts  travelled  through  the  breaches,  and 
learned  that  outside  their  fatherland  there  lay  the 
world.  Their  lives  thereupon  widened  immensely,  but 
their  theologies  stood  still.  They  felt  the  great  forces 
which  shook  the  world,  but  their  gods  remained  the 
same  petty,  provincial  deities.  Then  came  this  great 
Assyrian  power,  hurtling  through  the  nations,  laughing 
at  their  gods  as  idols,  boasting  that  it  was  by  his  own 
strength  he  overcame  them,  and  to  simple  eyes  making 
good  his  boast  as  he  harried  the  whole  earth  like  a 
bird's  nest.  No  wonder  that  men's  hearts  were 
drawn  from  the  unseen  spiritualities  to  this  very  visible 
brutality  !  No  wonder  all  real  faith  in  the  gods  seemed 
to  be  dying  out,  and  that  men  made  it  the  business  of 
their  lives  to  seek  peace  with  this  world-force,  that  was 
carrying  everything,  including  the  gods  themselves, 
before  it !  Mankind  was  in  danger  of  practical 
atheism :  of  placing,  as  Isaiah  tells  us,  the  ultimate 
faith  which  belongs  to  a  righteous  God  in  this  brute 
force :  of  substituting  embassies  for  prayers,  tribute 
for  sacrifice,  and  the  tricks  and  compromises  of 
diplomacy  for  the  endeavour  to  live  a  holy  and 
righteous  life.  Behold,  what  questions  were  at  issue : 
questions  that  have  come  up  again  and  again  in  the 
history  of  human  thought,  and  that  are  tugging  at  us 
to-day  harder  than  ever ! — whether  the  visible,  sensible 


174  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

forces  of  the  universe,  that  break  so  rudely  in  upon  our 
primitive  theologies,  are  what  we  men  have  to  make 
our  peace  with,  or  whether  there  is  behind  them  a 
Being,  who  wields  them  for  purposes,  far  transcending 
them,  of  justice  and  of  love ;  whether,  in  short,  we 
are  to  be  materialists  or  believers  in  God.  It  is  the 
same  old,  ever-new  debate.  The  factors  of  it  have 
only  changed  a  little  as  we  have  become  more  learned. 
Where  Isaiah  felt  the  Assyrians,  we  are  confronted  by 
the  evolution  of  nature  and  history,  and  the  material 
forces  into  Vv^hich  it  sometimes  looks  ominously  like  as 
if  these  could  be  analysed.  Everything  that  has  come 
forcibly  and  gloriously  to  the  front  of  things,  every 
drift  that  appears  to  dominate  history,  all  that  asserts 
its  claim  on  our  wonder,  and  offers  its  own  simple  and 
strong  solution  of  our  life — is  our  Assyria.  It  is  pre- 
cisely now,  as  then,  a  rush  of  new  powers  across  the 
horizon  of  our  knowledge,  which  makes  the  God,  who 
was  sufficient  for  the  narrower  knowledge  of  yesterday, 
seem  petty  and  old-fashioned  to-day.  This  problem  no 
generation  can  escape,  whose  vision  of  the  world  has 
become  wider  than  that  of  its  predecessors.  But 
Isaiah's  greatness  lay  in  this :  that  it  was  given  to  him 
to  attack  the  problem  the  first  time  it  presented  itself 
to  humanity  with  any  serious  force,  and  that  he  applied 
to  it  the  only  sure  solution — a  more  lofty  and  spiritual 
view  of  God  than  the  one  which  it  had  found  wanting. 
We  may  thus  paraphrase  his  argument :  "Give  me  a  God 
who  is  more  than  a  national  patron,  give  me  a  God 
who  cares  only  for  righteousness,  and  I  say  that  every 
material  force  the  world  exhibits  is  nothing  but  sub- 
ordinate to  Him,  Brute  force  cannot  be  anything  but 
an  instrument,  an  axe,  a  saw,  something  essentially 
mechanical  and  in  need  of  an   arm  to  lift  it.     Postu- 


X.  5     34]       ATHEISM  OF  FORCE  AND  FEAR.  V^S 

late  a  supreme  and  righteous  Ruler  of  the  world,  and 
you  not  only  have  all  its  movements  explained,  but 
may  rest  assured,  that  it  shall  only  be  permitted  to 
execute  justice  and  purify  men.  The  world  cannot 
prevent  their  salvation,  if  God  have  willed  this." 

Isaiah's  problem  was  thus  the  fundamental  one 
between  faith  and  atheism ;  but  we  must  notice  that 
it  did  not  arise  theoretically,  nor  did  he  meet  it  by 
an  abstract  proposition.  This  fundamental  religious 
question — whether  men  are  to  trust  in  the  visible 
forces  of  the  world  or  in  the  invisible  God — came  up  as 
a  bit  of  practical  politics.  It  was  not  to  Isaiah  a 
philosophical  or  theological  question.  It  was  an  affair 
in  the  foreign  policy  of  Judah, 

Except  to  a  few  thinkers,  the  question  between 
materialism  and  faith  never  does  present  itself  as  one 
of  abstract  argument.  To  the  mass  of  men  it  is  always 
a  question  of  practical  life.  Statesmen  meet  it  in  their 
policies,  private  persons  in  the  conduct  of  their  fortunes. 
Few  of  us  trouble  our  heads  about  an  intellectual 
atheism,  but  the  temptations  to  practical  atheism  abound 
unto  us  all  day  by  day.  Materialism  never  presents 
itself  as  a  mere  ism;  it  always  takes  some  concrete 
form.  Our  Assyria  may  be  the  world  in  Christ's  sense, 
that  flood  ol  successful,  heartless,  unscrupulous,  scornful 
forces  which  burst  on  our  innocence,  with  their  chal- 
lenge to  make  terms  and  pay  tribute,  or  go  clown 
straightway  in  the  struggle  for  existence.  Beside  their 
frank  and  forceful  demands,  how  commonplace  and 
irrelevant  do  the  simple  precepts  of  religion  often  seem  ; 
and  how  the  great  brazen  laugh  of  the  world  seems  to 
bleach  the  beauty  out  of  purity  and  honour  !  According 
to  our  temper,  we  either  cower  before  its  insolence,  whin- 
ing that  character  and  energy  of  struggle  and  religious 


176  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

peace  are  impossible  against  it ;  and  that  is  the  Atheism 
of  Fear,  with  which  Isaiah  charged  the  men  of  Jerusalem, 
when  they  were  paral3^sed  before  Assyria.  Or  we  seek 
to  ensure  ourselves  against  disaster  by  alliance  with 
the  world.  We  make  ourselves  one  with  it,  its  subjects 
and  imitators.  We  absorb  the  world's  temper,  get  to 
believe  in  nothing  but  success,  regard  men  only  as  they 
can  be  useful  to  us,  and  think  so  exclusively  of  our-- 
selves  as  to  lose  the  faculty  of  imagining  about  us  any 
other  right  or  need  or  pity.  And  all  that  is  the  Atheism 
of  Force,  with  which  Isaiah  charged  the  Assyrian.  It  is 
useless  to  think,  that  we  common  men  cannot  possibly 
sin  after  the  grand  manner  of  this  imperial  monster. 
In  our  measure  we  fatally  can.  In  this  commercial  age 
private  persons  very  easily  rise  to  a  position  of  influence, 
which  gives  almost  as  vast  a  stage  for  egotism  to  dis- 
play itself  as  the  Assyrian  boasted.  But  after  all  the 
human  Ego  needs  very  little  room  to  develop  the 
possibilities  of  atheism  that  are  in  it.  An  idol  is  an  idol, 
whether  you  put  it  on  a  small  or  a  large  pedestal.  A 
little  man  with  a  little  work  may  as  easily  stand 
between  himself  and  God,  as  an  emperor  with  the  world 
at  his  feet.  Forgetfulness  that  he  is  a  servant,  a 
trader  on  graciously  entrusted  capital — and  then  at  the 
best  an  unprofitable  one — is  not  less  sinful  in  a  small 
egoist  than  in  a  great  one;  it  is  only  very  much  more 
ridiculous,  than  Isaiah,  with  his  scorn,  has  made  it  to 
appear  in  the  Assyrian. 

Or  our  Assyria  may  be  the  forces  of  nature,  which 
have  swept  upon  the  knowledge  of  this  generation  with 
the  novelty  and  impetus,  with  which  the  northern  hosts 
burst  across  the  horizon  of  Israel.  Men  to-day,  in  the 
course  of  their  education,  become  acquainted  with  laws 
and  forces,  which  dwarf  the  simpler  theologies  of  their 


X,  5—34-]        ATHEISM  OF  FORCE  AND  FEAR.  177 

boyhood,  pretty  much  as  the  primitive  beliefs  of  Israel 
dvvindled  before  the  arrogant  face  of  Assyria.  The 
alternative  confronts  them  either  to  retain,  with  a 
narrowed  and  fearful  heart,  their  old  conceptions  of 
God,  or  to  find  their  enthusiasm  in  studying,  and  their 
duty  in  relating  themselves  to,  the  forces  of  nature 
alone.  If  this  be  the  only  alternative^  there  can  be  no 
doubt  but  that  most  men  will  take  the  latter  course. 
We  ought  as  little  to  wonder  at  men  of  to-day  abandon- 
ing certain  theologies  and  forms  of  religion  for  a  down- 
right naturalism — for  the  study  of  powers  that  appeal 
so  much  to  the  curiosity  and  reverence  of  man — as  we 
wonder  at  the  poor  Jews  of  the  eighth  century  before 
Christ  forsaking  their  provincial  conceptions  of  God 
as  a  tribal  Deity  for  homage  to  this  great  Assyrian,  who 
handled  the  nations  and  their  gods  as  his  playthings. 
But  is  such  the  only  alternative  ?  Is  there  no  higher 
and  sovereign  conception  of  God,  in  which  even  these 
natural  forces  may  find  their  explanation  and  term  ? 
Isaiah  found  such  a  conception  for  his  problem,  and  his 
problem  was  very  similar  to  ours.  Beneath  his  idea  of 
God,  exalted  and  spiritual,  even  the  imperial  Assyrian, 
in  all  his  arrogance,  fell  subordinate  and  serviceable. 
The  prophet's  faith  never  wavered,  and  in  the  end  was 
vindicated  by  history.  Shall  we  not  at  least  attempt 
his  method  of  solution  ?  We  could  not  do  better  than 
by  taking  his  factors.  Isaiah  got  a  God  m.ore  powerful 
than  Assyria,  by  simply  exalting  the  old  God  of  his 
nation  in  righteousness.  This  Hebrevv^  was  saved  from 
the  terrible  conclusion,  that  the  selfish,  cruel  force  which 
in  his  day  carried  all  before  it  was  the  highest  power 
in  life,  simply  by  believing  righteousness  to  be  more 
exalted  still.  But  have  twenty-five  centuries  made  an}'' 
change  upon  this  power,  by  which  Isaiah  interpreted 

VOL.    I.  12 


178  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

history  and  overcame  the  world?    Is  righteousness  less 
sovereign  now  than  then,  or  was  conscience  more  im- 
perative when  it  spoke  in  Hebrew  than  when  it  speaks 
in   Enghsh  ?     Among    the  decrees    of   nature,  at  last 
interpreted    for   us    in    all    their    scope  and    reiterated 
upon  our  imaginations  by  the  ablest  men  of  the  age, 
truth,  purity    and    civic  justice   as    confidently    assert 
their  ultimate  victory,  as  when  they  were   threatened 
merely  by  the  arrogance  of   a  human    despot.      The 
discipline  of  science  and  the  glories  of  the  worship  of 
nature  are  indeed  justly  vaunted  over  the  childish  and 
narrow-minded  ideas  of  God,  that  prevail  in  much  of 
our  average  Christianity.     But  more  glorious  than  any- 
thing in  earth  or  heaven  is  character,  and  the  adora- 
tion of  a  holy  and  loving  will  makes  more  for  "  victory 
and  law"    than    the   discipline   or    the  enthusiasm    of 
science.      Therefore,   if  our   conceptions  of   God    are 
overwhelmed  by  what  we  know  of  nature,  let  us  seek 
to  enlarge  and  spiritualize  them.    Let  us  insist,  as  Isaiah 
did,  upon  His  righteousness,  until  our  God  once  more 
appear  indubitably  supreme. 

Otherwise  we  are  left  with  the  intolerable  paradox, 
that  truth  and  honesty,  patience  and  the  love  of  man  to 
man,  are  after  all  but  the  playthings  and  victims  of 
force ;  that,  to  adapt  the  words  of  Isaiah,  the  rod  really 
shakes  him  who  hfts  it  up,  and  the  staff  is  wielding  that 
which  is  not  wood. 


vy 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  SPIRIT  OF  COD  IN  MAN  AND  THE  ANIMALS. 
Isaiah  xi.,  xii.  (about  720  b.c.  ?) 

BENEATH  the  crash  of  the  Assyrian  with  which 
the  tenth  chapter  closes,  we  pass  out  into  the 
eleventh  upon  a  glorious  prospect  of  Israel's  future. 
The  Assyrian  when  he  falls  shall  fall  for  ever  like  the 
cedars  of  Lebanon,  that  send  no  fresh  sprout  forth 
from  their  broken  stumps.  But  out  of  the  trunk  of 
the  Judsean  oak,  also  brought  down  by  these  terrible 
storms,  Isaiah  sees  springing  a  fair  and  powerful 
Branch.  Assyria,  he  would  tell  us,  has  no  future. 
Judah  has  a  future,  and  at  first  the  prophet  sees  it 
in  a  scion  of  her  royal  house.  The  nation  shall  be 
almost  exterminated,  the  dynasty  of  David  hewn  to 
a  stump  ;  yet  there  shall  spring  a  shoot  from  the  stock  oj 
Jesse,  and  a  branch  from  his  roots  shall  bear  fruit. 

The  picture  of  this  future,  which  fills  the  eleventh 
chapter,  is  one  of  the  most  extensive  that  Isaiah  has 
drawn.  Three  great  prospects  are  unfolded  in  it :  a 
prospect  of  mind,  a  prospect  of  nature  and  a  prospect 
of  history.  To  begin  with,  there  is  (vv.  2 — 5)  the 
geography  of  a  royal  mind  in  its  stretches  of  character, 
knowledge  and  achievement.  We  have  next  (vv.  5 — 9) 
a  vision  of  the  restitution  of  nature,  Paradise  re- 
gained.      And,    thirdly    (vv.    9 — 16),    there    is     the 


iSo  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

geography  of  Israel's  redemption,  the  coasts  and 
highways  along  which  the  hosts  of  the  dispersion 
sweep  up  from  captivity  to  a  station  of  supremacy 
over  the  world.  To  this  third  prospect  chapter  xii. 
forms  a  fitting  conclusion,  a  hymn  of  praise  in  the 
mouth  of  returning  exiles.*  The  human  mind,  nature 
and  history  are  the  three  dimensions  of  life,  and  across 
them  all  the  prophet  tells  us  that  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
will  fill  the  future  with  His  marvels  of  righteousness, 
wisdom  and  peace.  He  presents  to  us  three  great 
ideals  :  the  perfect  indwelling  of  our  humanity  by  the 
Spirit  of  God ;  the  peace  and  communion  of  all 
nature,  covered  with  the  knowledge  of  God ;  the 
traversing  of  all  history  by  the  Divine  purposes  of 
redemption. 

I.  The  Messiah  and  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
(xi.  1-5). 

The  first  form,  in  which  Isaiah  sees  Israel's  longed- 
for  future  realised,  is  that  which  he  so  often  exalts  and 
makes  glistering  upon  the  threshold  of  the  future — the 
form  of  a  king.  It  is  a  peculiarity,  which  we  cannot 
fail  to  remark  about  Isaiah's  scattered  representations 
of  this  brilliant  figure,  that  they  have  no  connecting 
link.  They  do  not  allude  to  one  another,  nor  employ  a 
common  terminology,  even  the  word  king  dropping 
out  of  some  of  them.  The  earliest  of  the  series 
bestows  a  name  on  the  Messiah,  which  none  of  the 
others  repeat,  nor  does  Isaiah  say  in  any  of  them, 
This  is  He  of  whom  I  have  spoken  before.  Perhaps 
the  disconnectedness  of  these  oracles  is  as  strong  a 
proof  as  is  necessary  of  the  view  we  have  formed  that 

•  The  authenticity  of  this  hymn  has  been  called  in  question. 


xi.,  xii.]  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GOD.  l8i 

throughout  his  ministry  our  prophet  had  before  him 
no  distinct,  identical  individual,  but  rather  an  ideal  of 
virtue  and  kinghood,  whose  features  varied  according 
to  the  conditions  of  the  time.  In  this  chapter  Isaiah 
recalls  nothing  of  Immanuel,  or  of  the  Prince-of-the- 
Four-Names.  Nevertheless  (besides  for  the  first  time 
deriving  the  Messiah  from  the  house  of  David),  he 
carries  his  description  forward  to  a  stage  which  lies 
beyond  and  to  some  extent  implies  his  two  previous 
portraits.  Immanuel  was  only  a  Sufferer  with  His 
people  in  the  day  of  th:ir  oppression.  The  Prince-of- 
the-Four-Names  was  the  Redeemer  of  his  people  from 
their  captivity,  and  stepped  to  his  throne  not  only 
after  victory,  but  with  the  promise  of  a  long  and  just 
government  shining  from  the  titles  by  which  He  was 
proclaimed.  But  now  Isaiah  not  only  speaks  at  length 
of  this  peaceful  reign — a  chronological  advance — but 
describes  his  hero  so  inwardly  that  we  also  feel  a 
certain  spiritual  advance.  The  Messiah  is  no  more  a 
mere  experience,  as  Immanuel  was,  nor  only  outward 
deed  and  promise,  like  the  Prince-of-the-Four-Names, 
but  at  last,  and  very  strongly,  a  character.  The 
second  verse  is  the  definition  of  this  character;  the 
third  describes  the  atmosphere  in  which  it  lives.  And 
there  shall  rest  upon  him  the  Spirit  of  Jehovah,  the  spirit 
of  ivisdotn  and  understanding,  the  spirit  of  counsel  and 
might,  the  spirit  of  knoivledge  and  the  fear  of  Jehovah  ; 
and  he  shall  draw  breath  in  the  fear  of  Jehovah — in 
other  words,  ripeness  but  also  sharpness  of  mind ; 
moral  decision  and  heroic  energy ;  piety  in  its  two 
forms  of  knowing  the  will  of  God  and  feeling  the 
constraint  to  perform  it.  We  could  not  have  a  more 
concise  summary  of  the  strong  elements  of  a  rulin;; 
mind.     But  it  is  only  as  Judge  and   Ruler   that  Isaiah 


/82  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

cares  here  to  think  of  his  hero.  Nothing  is  said  of 
tlie  tender  virtues,  and  we  feel  that  the  prophet  still 
stands  in  the  days  of  the  need  of  inflexible  govern- 
ment and  purgation  in  Judah. 

Dean  Plumptre  has  plausibly  suggested,  that  these 
verses  may  represent  the  programme  which  Isaiah  set 
before  his  pupil  Hezekiah  on  his  accession  to  the  charge 
of  a  nation,  whom  his  weak  predecessor  had  suffered  to 
lapse  into  such  abuse  of  justice  and  laxity  of  morals.* 
The  acts  of  government  described  are  all  of  a  punitive 
and  repressive  character.  The  hero  speaks  only  to 
make  the  land  tremble :  And  He  shall  smite  the  landf 
with  the  rod  of  His  mouth  [what  need,  after  the 
whispering,  indecisive  Ahaz  !],  and  with  the  breath  oj 
His  lips  shall  He  slay  the  wicked. 

This,  though  a  fuller  and  more  ethical  picture  of  the 
Messiah  than  even  the  ninth  chapter,  is  evidently 
wanting  in  many  of  the  traits  of  a  perfect  man. 
Isaiah  has  to  grow  in  his  conception  of  his  Hero, 
and  will  grow  as  the  years  go  on,  in  tenderness.  His 
thirty-second  chapter  is  a  much  richer,  a  more  gracious 
and  humane  picture  of  the  Messiah.  There  the 
Victor  of  the  ninth  and  righteous  Judge  of  the 
eleventh  chapters  is  represented  as  a  Man,  who  shall 
not  only  punish  but  protect,  and  not  only  reign  but 
inspire,  who  shall  be  life  as  well  as  victory  and  justice 
to   His  people — an  hiding-place  from  the  wind  and  a 

*  Dean  Plumptre  notes  the  identity  of  the  ethical  terminology  of 
this  passage  with  that  of  the  book  of  Proverbs,  and  conjectures  that 
the  additions  to  the  original  nucleus,  chaps,  x. — xxiv.,  and  therefore 
the  whole  form,  of  the  book  of  Proverbs,  may  be  due  to  the  editorship 
of  Isaiah,  and  perhaps  was  the  manual  of  ethics,  on  which  he  sought 
to  mould  the  character  of  Hezekiah  {Expositor,  series  ii.,  v.,  p.  213). 

■f  Perhaps  for  land — carets — we  ought,  with  Lagarde,  to  read  tyrant — 
carits. 


xi.,  xii.J  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GOD.  183 

covert  from  the  tempest^  as  rivers  of  water  in  a  dry  place, 
as  the  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land. 

A  conception  so  limited   to  the  qualifications  of  an 
earthly  monarch,  as  this  of  chap,  xi.,  gives  us  no  ground 
for  departing  from  our  previous  conclusion,  that  Isainh 
had  not  a  "  supernatural "  personality  in  his  view.     The 
Christian  Church,  however,  has  not  confined  the  applica- 
tion of  the  passage  to  earthly  kings  and  magistrates,  but 
has  seen  its  perfect  fulfilment  in  the  indwelling  of  Christ's 
human  nature  by  the  Holy  Ghost.     But  it  is  remarkable, 
that  for  this  exegesis  she  has  not  made  use  of  the  most 
"  supernatural  "    of    the     details    of    character    here 
portrayed.     If  the   Old    Testament    has   a    phrase  for 
sinlessness,  that  phrase  occurs  here,  in  the  beginning 
of  the  third  verse.     In  the  authorized  English  version 
it  is  translated,   and  shall  "inake  him  of  quick  under- 
standing in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  and  in  the  Revised 
Version,  His  delight  shall  be  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  and  on 
the  margin  the  literal  meaning  of  delight  is  given  as  scent. 
But  the  phrase  may  as  well  mean,  He  shall  draw  his  \ 
breath  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord ;  and  it  is  a  great  pity,  that 
our  revisers  have  not  even  on  the  margin  given  to  English 
readers  any  suggestion  of  so  picturesque,  and  probably 
so  correct,  a  rendering.    It  is  a  most  expressive  definition 
of  sinlessness — sinlessness  which  was  the  attribute  of 
Christ  alone.  We,  however  pwrely  intentioned  Vv^e  be,  are  j 
compassed  about  by  an  atmosphere  of  sin.     We  cannot  i 
help  breathing  what   now  inflames  our  passions,  now  \ 
chills   our  warmest   feelings,   and    makes    our    throats  j 
incapable  of  honest  testimony  or  glorious  praise.     As 
oxygen  to  a  dying  fire,  so  the  worldliness  we  breathe  is 
to  the  sin  within  us.     We  cannot  help  it ;  it  is  the  atmo-  j 
sphere  into  which  v/e  are  born.     But  from  this  Christ 
alone  of  men  was  free.     He  was  His  own  atmosphere, 


I §4  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

drawing  breath  in  the  fear  of  tJic  Lord.  Of  Him  alone 
is  it  recorded,  that,  though  living  in  the  world,  He 
was  never  infected  with  the  world's  sin.  The  blast  of 
no  man's  cruelty  ever  kindled  unholy  wrath  within  His 
breast;  nor  did  men's  unbelief  carry  to  His  soul  its 
deadly  chill.  Not  even  when  He  was  led  of  the  devil 
into  the  atmosphere  of  temptation,  did  His  heart  throb 
with  one  rebellious  ambition.  Christ  drew  breath  in  the 
fear  oj  the  Lord. 

^  But  draughts  of  this  atmosphere  are  possible  to  us 
also,  to  whom  the  Holy  Spirit  is  granted.  We  too, 
who  sicken  with  the  tainted  breath  of  society,  and  sec 
the  characters  of  children  about  us  fall  away  and  the 
bidden  evil  within  leap  to  swift  flame  before  the  blasts 
of  the  world — we  too  may,  by  Christ's  grace,  draii.) 
breathy  like  Him,  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord.  Recall  some 
day  when,  leaving  your  close  room  and  the  smoky 
city,  you  breasted  the  hills  of  God,  and  into  opened 
lungs  drew  deep  draughts  of  the  fresh  air  of  heaven. 
What  strength  it  gave  your  body,  and  with  what  a 
glow  of  happiness  your  mind  was  filled  !  What  that 
is  physically,  Christ  has  made  possible  for  us  men 
morally.  He  has  revealed  stretches  and  eminences  of 
life,  where,  following  in  His  footsteps,  we  also  shall 
draw  for  our  breath  the  fear  of  God.  This  air  is 
inspired  up  every  steep  hill  of  effort,  and  upon  all 
summits  of  worship.  In  the  most  passion-haunted  air, 
prayer  will  immediately  bring  this  atmosphere  about 
a  man,  and  on  the  wings  of  praise  the  poorest  soul 
may  rise  from  the  miasma  of  temptation,  and  sing  forth 
her  song  into  the  azure  with  as  clear  a  throat  as  the 
lark's. 

And  what  else  is  heaven  to  be,  if  not  this  ?    God,  we 
are  told,  shall  be  its  Sun  ;  but  its  atmosphere  shall  be 


xi.,  xii.]  THE  Sr/.^IT  OF  GOD.  1^5 

His  fear,  zvhfc/i  is  clean  and  cjidnreth  for  ever.  Heaven 
seems  most  real  as  a  moral  open-air,  where  every 
breath  is  an  inspiration,  and  every  pulse  a  healthy  joy, 
where  no  thoughts  from  within  us  find  breath  but 
those  of  obedience  and  praise,  and  all  our  passions 
and  aspirations  are  of  the  will  of  God.  He  that  lives 
near  to  Christ,  and  by  Christ  often  seeks  God  in 
prayer,  may  create  for  himself  even  on  earth  such  a 
heaven,  perfecthig  holiness  in  the  fear  of  God. 

II.  The  Seven  Spirits  of  God  (xi.  2,  3). 

This  passage,  which  suggests  so  much  of  Christ,  is 
also  for  Christian  Theology  and  Art  a  classical  pas- 
sage on  the  Third  Person  of  the  Trinity.  If  the  texts 
in  the  book  of  Revelation  (chaps,  i.  4  ;  iii.  i  ;  iv.  5  ; 
V.  6)  upon  the  Seven  Spirits  of  God  were  not  them- 
selves founded  on  this  text  of  Isaiah,  it  is  certain  that 
the  Church  immediately  began  to  interpret  them  by  its 
details.  While  there  are  only  six  spirits  of  God  named 
here — three  pairs — yet,  in  order  to  complete  the  perfect 
number,  the  exegesis  of  early  Christianity  sometimes 
added  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  at  the  beginning  of  verse  2 
as  the  central  branch  of  a  seven-branched  candlestick  ; 
or  sometimes  the  quick  understanding  in  the  fear  of  the 
Lord  in  the  beginning  of  verse  3  was  attached  as  the 
seventh  branch.     (Compare  Zech.  iv.  6.) 

It  is  remarkable  that  there  is  almost  no  single  text  of 
Scripture,  which  has  more  impressed  itself  upon  Christian 
doctrine  and  symbol  than  this  second  verse  of  the 
eleventh  chapter,  interpreted  as  a  definition  of  the 
Seven  Spirits  of  God.  In  the  theology,  art  and 
worship  of  the  Middle  Ages  it  dominated  the  expression 
of  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  First,  and  most  native 
to  its  origin,  arose  the  employment  of  this  text  at  the 


1 86  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

coronation  of  kings  and  the  fencing  of  tribunals  of 
justice.  What  Isaiah  wrote  for  Hezekiah  of  Judah 
became  the  official  prayer,  song  or  ensample  of  the 
earliest  Christian  kings  in  Europe.  It  is  evidently  the 
model  of  that  royal  hymn — not  by  Charlemagne,  as 
usually  supposed,  but  by  his  grandson  Charles  the 
Bald— the  Vent  Creator  Spiritns.  In  a  Greek  miniature 
of  the  tenth  century,  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  a  dove,  is  seen 
hovering  over  King  David,  who  displays  the  prayer  : 
Give  the  king  Thy  judgements,  O  God,  and  Thy  righteous- 
ness to  the  king's  son,  while  there  stand  on  either  side 
of  him  the  figures  of  Wirdom  and  Prophecy.*  Henry 
III.'s  order  of  knighthood,  "  Du  Saint  Esprit,"  was  re- 
stricted to  political  men,  and  particularly  to  magistrates. 
But  perhaps  the  most  interesting  identification  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  with  the  rigorous  virtues  of  our  passage 
occurs  in  a  story  of  St.  Dunstan,  who,  just  before  mass 
on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  discovered  that  three  coiners, 
who  had  been  sentenced  to  death,  were  being  respited 
till  the  Festival  of  the  Holy  Ghost  should  be  over. 
"  It  shall  not  be  thus,"  cried  the  indignant  saint,  and 
gave  orders  for  their  immediate  execution.  There  was 
remonstrance,  but  he,  no  doubt  with  the  eleventh  of 
Isaiah  in  mind,  insisted,  and  was  obeyed.  "  I  now 
hope,"  he  said,  resuming  the  mass,  "  that  God  will  be 
pleased  to  accept  the  sacrifice  I  am  about  to  offer." 
"  Whereupon,"  says  the  veracious  Acts  of  the  Saints, 
"  a  snow-white  dove  did,  in  the  vision  of  many,  descend 
from  heaven,  and  until  the  sacrifice  was  completed 
remain  above  his  head  in  silence,  with  wings  ex- 
tended and  motionless."  Which  may  be  as  much  legend 
as   we    have    the    heart    to    make  it,   but   nevertheless 

*  Didron,  Christian  Iconography,  Engl,  trans.,  i.,  432. 


xi.,  xii.J  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GOD.  187 

remains  a  sure  proof  of  the  association,  by  discerning 
mediaevals  who  could  read  their  Scriptures,  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  with  the  decisiveness  and  rigorous  justice 
of  Isaiah's  "  mirror  for  magistrates."* 

But  the  influence  of  our  passage  may  be  followed  to 
that  wider  definition  of  the  Spirit's  work,  which  made 
Him  the  Fountain  of  all  intelligence.  The  Spirits  of  the 
Lord  mentioned  by  Isaiah  are  prevailingly  intellectual ; 
and  the  mediaeval  Church,  using  the  details  of  this  passage 
to  interpret  Christ's  own  intimation  of  the  Paraclete  as 
the  Spirit  of  truth, — remembering  also  the  story  of 
Pentecost,  when  the  Spirit  bestowed  the  gifts  of 
tongues,  and  the  case  of  Stephen,  who,  in  the  triumph 
of  his  eloquence  and  learning,  was  said  to  be  full  of 
the  Holy  Ghost, — did  regard,  as  Gregory  of  Tours 
expressly  declared,  the  Holy  Spirit  as  the  "  God  of  the 
intellect  more  than  of  the  heart."  All  Councils  were 
opened  by  a  mass  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  few,  who 
have  examined  with  care  the  windows  of  mediaeval 
churches,  will  have  failed  to  be  struck  with  the  fre- 
quency with  which  the  Dove  is  seen  descending  upon 
the  heads  of  miraculously  learned  persons,  or  presiding 
at  discussions,  or  hovering  over  groups  of  figures  repre- 
senting the  sciences.!  To  the  mediceval  Church,  then, 
the  Holy  Spirit  was  the  Author  of  the  intellect,  more 
especially  of  the  governing  and  political  intellect ;  and 
there  can  be  little  doubt,  after  a  study  of  the  variations 
of  this  doctrine,  that  the  first  five  verses  of  the  eleventh 
of  Isaiah  formed  upon  it  the  classical  text  of  appeal. 
To  Christians,  who  have  been  accustomed  by  the  use  of 
the  word   Comforter  to  associate  the  Spirit  only  with 

*  Didron,  Christian  Iconography,  Engl,  trans.,  i.,  426. 
\  See  Didron  for  numerous  interesting  instances  of  this. 


iR8  THE  BOOK  OF  tSAIAII. 

tlie  gentle  and  consoling  influences  of  heaven,  it  may 
seem  strange  to  find  His  energy  identified  with  the  stern 
rigour  of  the  magistrate.  But  in  its  practical,  intelligent 
and  reasonable  uses  the  mediaeval  doctrine  is  greatly  to 
be  preferred,  on  grounds  both  of  Scripture  and  common- 
sense,  to  those  two  comparatively  modern  corruptions 
of  it,  one  of  which  emphasizes  the  Spirit's  influence  in 
the  exclusive  operation  of  the  grace  of  orders,  and  the 
other,  driving  to  an  opposite  extreme,  dissipates  it  into 
the  vaguest  religiosity.  It  is  one  of  the  curiosities  of 
Christian  theology,  that  a  Divine  influence,  asserted  by 
Scripture  and  believed  by  the  early  Church  to  m.anifest 
itself  in  the  successful  conduct  of  civil  offices  and  the 
fulness  of  intellectual  learning,  should  in  these  latter 
days  be  so  often  set  up  in  a  sort  of  "  supernatural " 
opposition  to  practical  wisdom  and  the  results  of 
science.  But  we  may  go  back  to  Isaiah  for  the  same 
kind  of  correction  on  this  doctrine,  as  he  has  given 
us  on  the  doctrine  of  faith ;  and  while  we  do  not  forget 
the  richer  meaning  the  New  Testament  bestows  on  the 
operation  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  we  may  learn  from  the 
Hebrew  prophet  to  seek  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  in  all  the  endeavours  of  science,  and  not  to 
forget  that  it  is  His  guidance  alone  which  enables  us 
to  succeed  in  the  conduct  of  our  offices  and  fortunes. 

III.  The  Redemption  of  Nature  (xi.  6-9). 

But  Isaiah  will  not  be  satisfied  with  the  establish- 
ment of  a  strong  government  in  the  land  and  the 
redemption  of  human  society  from  chaos.  He  prophe- 
sies the  redemption  of  all  nature  as  well.  It  is  one  of 
those  errois,  which  distort  both  the  poetry  and  truth  of 
the    Bible,   to    suppose    that  by  the    bears,    lions    and 


xi.,  xii.]  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GOD.  I^^9 

reptiles  which  the  prophet  now  sees  tamed  in  the  time 
of  the  regeneration,  he  intends  the  violent  human 
characters  which  he  so  often  attacks.  When  Isaiah 
here  talks  of  the  beasts,  he  means  the  beasts.  The 
passage  is  not  allegorical,  but  direct,  and  forms  a 
parallel  to  the  well-known  passage  in  the  eighth  of 
Ilomans,  Isaiah  and  Paul,  chief  apostles  of  the  two 
covenants,  both  interrupt  their  magnificent  odes  upon 
the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit,  to  remind  us  that  ti.e  bene- 
fits of  this  will  be  shared  by  the  brute  and  unintelligent 
creation.  And,  perhaps,  there  is  no  finer  contrast  in  the 
Scriptures  than  here,  where  beside  so  majestic  a  de- 
scription of  the  intellectual  faculties  of  humanity  Isaiah 
places  so  charming  a  picture  of  the  docility  and  sport- 
fulness  of  wild  animals, — And  a  little  child  shall  lead 
thcni. 

We,  who  live  in  countries,  from  which  wild  beasts 
have  been  exterminated,  cannot  understand  the  in- 
security and  terror,  that  they  cause  in  regions  where 
they  abound.  A  modern  seer  of  the  times  of  re- 
generation would  leave  the  wild  animals  out  of  his 
vision.  They  do  not  impress  any  more  the  human 
conscience  or  imagination.  But  they  once  did  so  most 
terribly.  The  hostility  between  man  and  the  beasts 
not  only  formed  once  upon  a  time  the  chief  material 
obstacle  in  the  progress  of  the  race,  but  remains  still 
to  the  religious  thinker  the  most  pathetic  portion  of  that 
groaning  and  travailing  of  all  creation,  which  is  so  heavy 
a  burden  on  his  heart.  Isaiah,  from  his  ancient  point  of 
view,  is  in  thorough  accord  with  the  order  of  civilisa- 
tion, when  he  represents  the  subjugation  of  wild  animals 
as  the  first  problem  of  man,  after  he  has  established  a 
strong  government  in  the  land.  So  far  from  rhetoriz- 
ing    or    allegorizing — above  which     literary    forms    it 


1 90  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

would  appear  to  be  impossible  for  the  appreciation  of 
some  of  his  commentators  to  follow  him — Isaiah  is 
earnestly  celebrating  a  very  real  moment  in  the  laborious 
progress  of  mankind.  Isaiah  stands  where  Hercules 
stood,  and  Tiieseus,  and  Arthur  when 

"  There  grew  great  tracts  of  wilderness, 
Wherein  the  beast  was  ever  more  and  more, 
But  man  was  less  and  less  till  Arthur  came. 
And  he  drave 
The  heathen,  and  he  slew  the  beast,  and  felled 
The  forest,  and  let  in  the  sun,  and  made 
Broad  pathways  for  the  hunter  and  the  knight. 
And  so  returned." 

But  Isaiah  would  solve  the  grim  problem  of  the  war- 
fare between  man  and  his  lower  fellow-creatures  in  a 
very  different  way  from  that,  of  which  these  heroes 
have  set  the  example  to  humanity.  Isaiah  would  not 
have  the  wild  beasts  exterminated,  but  tamed.  There 
our  Western  and  modern  imagination  may  fail  to  follow 
him,  especially  when  he  includes  reptiles  in  the  regenera- 
tion, and  prophesies  of  adders  and  lizards  as  the  play- 
things of  children.  But  surely  there  is  no  genial  man, 
who  has  watched  the  varied  forms  of  life  that  sport  in  the 
Southern  sunshine,  who  will  not  sympathize  with  the  pro- 
phet in  his  joyous  vision.  Upon  a  warm  spring  day  in 
Palestine,  to  sit  upon  the  grass,  beside  some  old  dyke 
or  ruin  with  its  face  to  the  south,  is  indeed  to  obtain  a 
rapturous  view  of  the  wealth  of  life,  with  wliich  the 
bountiful  God  has  blessed  and  made  merry  man's 
dwelling-place.  How  the  lizards  come  and  go  among 
the  grey  stones,  and  flash  like  jewels  in  the  dust !  And 
the  timid  snake  rippling  quickly  past  through  the  grass, 
and  the  leisurely  tortoise,  with  his  shiny  back,  and  the 
chameleon,  shivering"  into  new  colour  as  he  passes  from 
twig  to  stone  and  stone  to  straw, — all  the  air  the  while 


XI..  xii.]  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GOD.  191 

alive  with  the  music  of  the  cricket  and  the  bee  !  You  feel 
that  the  ideal  is  not  to  destroy  these  pretty  things  as 
vermin.  What  a  loss  of  colour  the  lizards  alone  would 
imply  !  But,  as  Isaiah  declares, — whom  we  may  imagine 
walking  with  his  children  up  the  steep  vineyard  paths, 
to  watch  the  creatures  come  and  go  upon  the  dry  dykes 
on  either  hand, — the  ideal  is  to  bring  them  into  sym- 
pathy with  ourselves,  make  pets  of  them  and  playthings 
for  children,  who  indeed  stretch  out  their  hands  in  joy 
to  the  pretty  toys.  Why  should  we  need  to  fight  with, 
or  destroy,  any  of  the  happy  life  the  Lord  has  created  ? 
Why  have  we  this  loathing  to  it,  and  need  to  defend 
ourselves  from  it,  when  there  is  so  much  suffering  we 
could  cure,  and  so  much  childlikeness  we  could  amuse 
and  be  amused  by,  and  yet  it  will  not  let  us  near  ? 
To  these  questions  there  is  not  another  answer  but  the 
answer  of  the  Bible:  that  this  curse  of  conflict  and  distrust 
between  man  and  his  fellow-creatures  is  due  to  man's 
sin,  and  shall  only  be  done  away  by  man's  redemption. 
Nor  is  this  Bible  answer, — of  which  the  book  of  Genesis 
gives  us  the  one  end,  and  this  text  of  Isaiah  the  other,— 
a  mere  pious  opinion,  which  the  true  history  of  man's 
dealing  with  wild  beasts  by  extermination  proves  to  be 
impracticable.  We  may  take  on  scientific  authority  a 
few  facts  as  hints  from  nature,  that  after  all  man  is  to 
blame  for  the  wildness  of  the  beasts,  and  that  throng' 1 
his  sanctification  they  may  be  restored  to  sympathy  with 
himself.  Charles  Darwin  says  :  "  It  deserves  notice, 
that  at  an  extremely  ancient  period,  when  man  first 
entered  any  country  the  animals  living  there  would 
have  felt  no  instinctive  or  inherited  fear  of  him,  and 
would  consequently  have  been  tamed  far  more  easily 
than  at  present."  And  he  gives  some  very  instructi\(' 
facts  in  proof  of  this  with  regard  to  dogs,  antelopor, 


•  92  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

mnnatees  and  hawks.  "  Quadrupeds  and  birds  whicli 
have  seldom  been  disturbed  by  man  dread  him  no  more 
than  do  our  Enghsh  birds  the  cows  or  horses  grazing 
in  the  fields."*  Darwin's  details  are  peculiarly  pathetic 
in  their  revelation  of  the  brutes'  utter  trustfulness  in 
man,  before  they  get  to  know  him.  Persons,  who  have 
had  to  do  with  individual  animals  of  a  species  that 
has  never  been  thoroughly  tamed,  are  aware  that  the 
difficulty  of  training  them  lies  in  convincing  them  of 
our  sincerity  and  good-heartedness,  and  that  when  this 
is  got  over  they  will  learn  almost  any  trick  or  habit 
The  well-known  lines  of  Burns  to  the  field-mouse  gather 
up  the  cause  of  all  this  in  a  fashion  very  similar  to  the 
Bible's. 

•  I'm  truly  sorry  man's  dominion 

Has  broken  nature's  social  union, 

And  justifies  that  ill  opinion, 
Which  makes  thee  startle 

At  me,  thy  poor  earth-born  companion 
And  fellow-mortal." 

How  much  the  appeal  of  suffering  animals  to  man — 
the  look  of  a  wounded  horse  or  dog  with  a  meaning 
which  speech  would  only  spoil,  the  tales  of  beasts  of 
prey  that  in  pain  have  turned  to  man  as  their  physician, 
the  approach  of  the  wildest  birds  in  winter  to  our  feet 
as  their  Providence — how  much  all  these  prove  Paul's 
saying  that  the  earnest  expectation  of  the  creature  ivailelh 
for  the  majiifestation  of  the  sons  of  God.  And  we  have 
otlier  signals,  than  those  afforded  by  the  pain  and 
pressure  of  the  beasts  themselves,  of  the  time  when 
they  and  man  shall  sympathize.  The  natural  history 
of  many  of  our  breeds  of  domesticated  animals  teaches 

*  Darwin,  Varialion  of  Animals  and  Plants  under  Domestication^ 
pp.  20,  21. 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  GOD.  i^j? 


us  the  lesson  that  their  growth  in  skill  and  character — 
no  one  who  has  enjoyed  tlie  friendship  of  several  dogs  will 
dispute  the  possibility  of  character  in- the  lower  animals — 
has  been  proportionate  to  man's  own.  Though  savages 
are  fond  of  keeping  and  taming  animals,  they  fail  to 
advance  them  to  the  stages  of  cunning  and  discipline, 
which  animals  reach  under  the  influence  of  civilised 
man.*  "  No  instance  is  on  record,"  says  Darwin,  "  of 
such  dogs  as  bloodhounds,  spaniels  or  true  greyhounds 
having  been  kept  by  savages ;  they  are  the  products 
of  long-continued  civilisation." 

These  facts,  if  few,  certainly  bear  in  the  direction  of 
Isaiah's  prophecy,  that  not  by  extermination  of  the 
beasts,  but  by  the  influence  upon  them  of  man's  greater 
force  of  character,  may  that  warfare  be  brought  to  an 
end,  of  which  man's  sin,  according  to  the  Bible,  is  the 
original  cause. 

The  practical  "uses"  of  such  a  passage  of  Scripture 
as  this  are  plain.  Some  of  them  are  the  awful  re- 
sponsibility of  man's  position  as  the  keystone  of 
creation,  the  material  eff.:cts  of  sin,  and  especially  the 
religiousness  of  our  relation  to  the  lower  animals. 
More  than  once  do  the  Hebrew  prophets  liken  the 
Almighty's  dealings  vv^ith  man  to  merciful  man's 
dcpHngs  with  his  bcasts.t  Both  Isaiah  and  Paul 
virtually  declare  that  man  discharges  to  the  lower 
creatures  a  mediatorial  office.  To  say  so  will  of  course 
seem  an  exaggeration  to  some  people,  but  not  to 
those  who,  besides  being  grateful  to  remember  what 
help  in  labour  and  cheer  in  dreariness  we  owe  our 
humble  fellow-creatures,  have  been  fortunate  enough  to 
enjoy  the  affection  and   trust  of  a  dumb  fricrd.     Men 

*  Galton,  quoted  by  Darwin. 
■f  Isa.  Ixiii.  13,  14;  Hos.  xi.  4. 
VOL.    I.  13 


194  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


who  abuse  the  lower  animals  sin  very  grievously  against 
God  ;  men  who  neglect  them  lose  some  of  the  religious 
possibilities  of  life.  If  it  is  our  business  in  life  to  have 
the  charge  of  animals,  we  should  magnify  our  calling. 
Every  coachman  and  carter  ought  to  feel  something  of 
the  priest  about  him ;  he  should  think  no  amount  of 
skill  and  patience  too  heavy  if  it  enables  him  to  gain 
insight  into  the  nature  of  creatures  of  God,  all  of 
whose  hope,  by  Scripture  and  his  own  experience,  is 
towards  himself. 

Our  relation  to  the  lower  animals  is  one  of  the  three 
great  relations  of  our  nature.  For  God  our  worship ; 
for  man  our  service ;  for  the  beasts  our  providence, 
and  according  both  to  Isaiah  and  Paul,  the  mediation 
of  our  holiness. 

IV.  The  Return  and  Sovereignty  of  Isra£l 
(xi.  10 — 1 6). 

In  passing  from  the  second  to  the  third  part  of  this 
prophecy,  we  cannot  but  feel  that  we  descend  to  a 
lower  point  of  view  and  a  less  pure  atmosphere  of 
spiritual  ambition.  Isaiah,  who  has  just  declared 
peace  between  man  and  beast,  finds  that  Judah  must 
clear  off  certain  scores  against  her  neighbours  before 
there  can  be  peace  between  man  and  man.  It  is 
an  interesting  psychological  study.  The  prophet,  who 
has  been  able  to  shake  off  man's  primeval  distrust  and 
loathing  of  wild  animals,  cannot  divest  himself  of  t\\t 
political  tempers  of  his  age.  He  admits,  indeed,  the 
reconciliation  of  Ephraim  and  Judah ;  but  the  first  act 
of  the  reconciled  brethnn,  he  prophesies  with  exul- 
tation, will  be  to  stvoop  down  upon  their  cousins  Edom, 
Moab  and  Ammon,  and  their  neighbours  the  Philistines. 


xi.,  xii.]  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GOD.  195 

We  need  not  longer  dwell  on  this  remarkable  limitation 
of  the  prophet's  spirit,  except  to  point  out  that  while 
Isaiah  clearly  saw  that  Israel's  own  purity  would  not 
be  perfected  except  by  her  political  debasement,  he 
could  not  as  yet  perceive  any  way  for  the  conversion 
of  the  rest  of  the  world  except  through  Israel's  political 
supremacy. 

The  prophet,  however,  is  more  occupied  with  an 
event  preliminary  to  Israel's  sovereignty,  namely  the 
return  from  exile.  His  large  and  emphatic  assertions 
remind  the  not  yet  captive  Judah  through  how  much 
captivity  she  has  to  pass  before  she  can  see  the  margin 
of  the  blessed  future  which  he  has  been  describing  to 
her,  Isaiah's  words  imply  a  much  more  general  cap- 
tivity than  had  taken  place  by  the  time  he  spoke  them, 
and  we  see  that  he  is  still  keeping  steadily  in  view  that 
thorough  reduction  of  his  people,  to  the  prospect  of 
which  he  was  forced  in  his  inaugural  vision.  Judah 
has  to  be  dispersed,  even  as  Ephraim  has  been,  before 
the  glories  of  this  chapter  shall  be  realized. 

We  postpone  further  treatment  of  this  prophecy, 
along  with  the  hymn  (chap,  xii.),  which  is  attached  to  it, 
to  a  separate  chapter,  dealing  with  all  the  representa- 
tions, which  the  first  half  of  the  book  of  Isaiah  contains, 
of  the  return  from  exile. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

DRIFTING  TO  EGYPT. 
Isaiah  xx.  ;  xxi.  i — lo;  xxxviii. ;  xxxiz. 

(720—705    B.C.). 

FROM  720,  when  chap.  xi.  may  have  been  pub- 
lished, to  705 — or,  by  rough  reckoning,  from 
the  fortieth  to  the  fifty-fifth  year  of  Isaiah's  life — we 
cannot  be  sure  that  we  have  more  than  one  prophecy 
from  him  ;  but  two  narratives  have  found  a  place  in  his 
book  which  relate  events  that  must  have  taken  place 
between  712  and  705.  These  narratives  are  chap.  xx. : 
How  Isaiah  Walked  Stripped  and  Barefoot  for  a  Sign 
against  Egypt,  and  chaps,  xxxviii.  and  xxxix. :  The 
Sickness  of  Hezekiah,  with  the  Hymn  he  wrote,  and 
his  Behaviour  before  the  Envoys  from  Babylon.  The 
single  prophecy  belonging  to  this  period  is  chap.  xxi. 
I — 10,  Oracle  of  the  Wilderness  of  the  Sea,  which 
announces  the  fall  of  Babylon.  There  has  been  con- 
siderable debate  about  the  authorship  of  this  oracle 
but  Cheyne,  mainly  following  Dr.  Kleinert,  gives 
substantial  reasons  for  leaving  it  with  Isaiah.  We  post- 
pone the  full  exposition  of  chaps,  xxxviii.,  xxxix.,  to  a 
later  stage,  as  here  it  would  only  interrupt  the  history. 
But  we  will  make  use  of  chaps,  xx.  and  xxi.  i  — 10  in 
the  course  of  the  following  historical  sketch,  which  is 
intended  to  connect  the  first  great  period  of  Isaiah's 
prophesying,  740 — 720,  with  the  second,  705 — 701. 


XX.,  xxi.  I  — lo.]         DRIFTING    TO  EGYPT.  197 

All  these  fifteen  years,  720^705,  Jerusalem  was 
drifting  to  the  refuge  into  which  she  plunged  at  the 
end  of  them — drifting  to  Egypt.  Ahaz  had  firmly  bound 
his  people  to  Assyria,  and  in  his  reign  there  was  no 
talk  of  an  Egyptian  alliance.  But  in  725,  when  the 
overflowing  scourge  of  Assyrian  invasion  threatened 
to  sweep  into  Judah  as  well  as  Samaria,  Isaiah's 
words  give  us  some  hint  of  a  recoil  in  the  politics  of 
Jerusalem  towards  the  southern  power.  The  covenants 
ivitli  death  and  hell,  which  the  men  of  scorn  flaunted  in 
his  face  as  he  harped  on  the  danger  from  Assyria,  may 
only  have  been  the  old  treaties  with  Assyria  herself, 
but  the  falscJiood  and  lies  that  went  with  them  were 
most  probably  intrigues  with  Egypt.  Any  Egyptian 
policy,  however,  that  may  have  formed  in  Jerusalem 
before  719,  was  entirely  discredited  by  the  crushing 
defeat,  which  in  that  year  Sargon  inflicted  upon  the 
empire  of  the  Nile,  almost  on  her  own  borders,  at 
Rafia. 

Years  of  quietness  for  Palestine  followed  this 
ix'cisive  battle.  Sargon,  whose  annals  engraved  on 
the  great  halls  of  Khorsabad  enable  us  to  read  the 
history  of  the  period  year  by  year,  tells  us  that  his 
next  campaigns  were  to  the  north  of  his  empire,  and 
till  711  he  alludes  to  Palestine  only  to  say  that 
tribute  was  coming  in  regularly,  or  to  mention  the 
deportation  to  Hamath  or  Samaria  of  some  tribe  he 
had  conquered  far  away.  Egypt,  however,  was  every- 
where busy  among  his  feudatories.  Intrigue  was 
Egypt's  forte.  She  is  always  represented  m  Isaiah's 
pages  as  the  talkative  power  of  many  promises.  Her 
fair  speech  was  very  sweet  to  men  groaning  beneath 
the  military  pressure  of  Assyria.  Her  splendid  past, 
in    conjunction    with    the    largeness    of    her     promise, 


IgS  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

excited  the  popular  imagination.  Centres  of  her 
influence  gathered  in  every  state.  An  Egyptian  party 
formed  in  Jerusalem.  Their  intrigue  pushed  mines 
in  all  directions,  and  before  the  century  was  out  the 
Assyrian  peace  in  Western  Asia  was  broken  by  two 
great  Explosions.  The  first  of  these,  in  71 1,  was  local 
and  abortive  ;  the  second,  in  705,  was  universal,  and 
for  a  time  entirely  destroyed  the  Assyrian  supremacy. 
The  centre  of  the  Explosion  of  71 1  was  Ashdod, 
a  city  of  the  Philistines.  The  king  had  suddenly 
refused  to  continue  the  Assyrian  tribute,  and  Sargon 
had  put  another  king  in  his  place.  But  the  people — in 
Ashdod,  as  everywhere  else,  it  was  the  people  who 
were  fascinated  by  Egypt — pulled  down  the  Assyrian 
puppet  and  elevated  laman,  a  friend  to  Pharaoh.  The 
other  cities  of  the  Philistines,  with  Moab,  Edom  and 
Judah,  were  prepared  by  Egyptian  promise  to  throw 
in  their  lot  with  the  rebels.  Sargon  gave  them  no 
time.  "  In  the  wrath  of  my  heart,  I  did  not  divide 
my  army,  and  I  did  not  diminish  the  ranks,  but  I 
marched  against  Asdod  with  my  warriors,  who  did 
not  separate  themselves  from  the  traces  of  my  sandals. 
I  besieged,  I  took,  Asdod  and  Gunt-Asdodim.  .  .  . 
I  then  made  again  these  towns.  I  placed  the  people 
vTiom  my  arm  had  conquered.  I  put  over  them  my 
lieutenant  as  governor.  I  considered  them  like 
Assyrians,  and  they  practised  obedience."*  It  is 
upon  this  campaign  of  Sargon  that  Mr.  Cheyne  argues 
for  the  invasion  of  Judah,  to  which  he  assigns  so 
many  of  Isaiah's  prophecies,  as,  e.g.,  chaps,  i.  and  x. 
5 — 34.  Some  day  Assyriology  may  give  us  proof 
of  this    supposition.      We   are    without   it  just    now. 

*  Records  of  the  Past,  vii.,  40. 


XX.,  XXI.  i-io.]         DRIFTING    TO  EGYPT.  199 

Sargon  speaks  no  word  of  invading  Judah,  and  the 
only  part  of  the  book  of  Isaiah  that  unmistakeably 
refers  to  this  time  is  the  picturesque  narrative  of 
chap.  XX. 

In  this  we  are  told  that  in  the  year  the  Tartan,  the 
Assyrian  commander-in-chief,  came  to  Ashdod  when 
Sargon  king  of  Assyria  sent  him  [that  is  to  be 
supposed  the  year  of  the  first  revolt  in  Ashdod,  to 
which  Sargon  himself  did  not  come],  and  he  fought 
against  Aslidod  and  took  it: — in  that  time  Jehovah  had 
spoken  by  the  hand  of  Isaiah  the  son  of  Amoz,  saying, 
Go  and  loose  t/ie  sackcloth,  the  prophet's  robe,  from  ojf 
thy  loins,  and  thy  sandal  strip  from  ojf  thy  foot ;  and  he 
did  so,  walking  staked,  that  is  unfrocked,  and  barefoot. 
For  Egyptian  intrigue  was  already  busy ;  the  temporary 
success  of  the  Tartan  at  Ashdod  did  not  discourage  it, 
and  it  needed  a  protest.  And  Jehovah  said.  As  My 
servant  Isaiah  hath  walked  unfrocked  and  barefoot  three 
years  for  a  sign  and  a  portent  against  Egypt  and  against 
Ethiopia  [note  the  double  name,  for  the  country  was 
now  divided  between  two  rulers,  the  secret  of  her 
impotence  to  interfere  forcibly  in  Palestine]  so  shall 
the  king  of  Assyria  lead  away  the  captives  of  Egypt  and 
exiles  of  Ethiopia,  young  and  old,  stripped  and  barefoot, 
and  with  buttocks  uncovered,  to  the  shame  of  Egypt. 
And  they  shall  be  dismayed  and  ashamed,  because  of 
Ethiopia  their  expectation  and  because  of  Egypt  their 
boast.  And  the  inhabitant  of  this  coastland  [that  is,  all 
Palestine,  and  a  name  for  it  remarkably  similar  to  the 
phrase  used  by  Sargon,  "  the  people  of  Philistia,  Judah, 
Edom  and  Moab,  dwelling  by  the  sea"  *]  shall  say  in 
that  day.  Behold,  such  is  our  expectation,  whither  we  had 

*  Cheyne. 


THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


fled  for  help  to  deliver  ourselves  from  the  king  oj 
Assyria,  and  hoiv  shall  we  escape — ive  ? 

This  parade  of  Isaiah  for  three  years,  unfrocked  and 
barefoot,  is  another  instance  of  that  habit  on  which  we 
remarked  in  connection  with  chap.  viii.  i  :  the  habit 
of  finally  carrying  everything  committed  to  him  before 
the  bar  of  the  whole  nation.  It  was  to  the  mass  of  the 
people  God  said,  Come  and  let  us  reason  together.  Let 
us  not  dsspise  Isaiah  in  his  shirt  any  more  than  we  do 
Diogenes  in  his  tub,  or  with  a  lantern  in  his  hand, 
seeking  for  a  man  by  its  rays  at  noonday.  He  was 
bent  on  startling  the  popular  conscience,  because  he 
hold  it  true  that  a  people's  own  morals  have  greater 
influence  on  their  destinies  than  the  policies  of  their 
statesmen.  But  especially  anxious  was  Isaiah,  as  we 
shall  again  see  from  chap,  xxxi.,  to  bring  this  Egyptian 
policy  home  to  the  popular  conscience.  Egypt  was  a 
big-mouthed,  blustering  power,  believed  in  by  the  mob  ; 
to  expose  her  required  public,  picturesque  and  per- 
sistent advertisement.  So  Isaiah  continued  his  walk 
for  three  years.  The  fall  of  Ashdod,  left  by  Egypt  to 
itself,  did  not  disillusion  the  Jews,  and  the  rapid  dis- 
appearance of  Sargon  to  another  part  of  his  empire 
where  there  was  trouble,  gave  the  Egyptians  audacity 
to  continue  their  intrigues  against  him.* 

Sargon's  new  trouble  had  broken  out  in  Babyloii, 
and  was  much  more  serious  than  any  revolt  in  Syria. 
Merodach  Baladan,  king  of  Chaldea,  was  no  ordinary 
vassal,  but  as  dangerous  a  rival  as  Egypt.  When  he 
rose,  it  meant  a  contest  between  Babylon  and  Nincveh 
for  the  sovereignty  of  the  world.  He  had  long  been 
preparing  for  war.     He  had  an  alliance  with  Elam,  and 

*  W.  R.  Smith,  Prophets  of  Israel,  p.  282. 


XX.,  xxi.  1  — 10.]         DRIFTING   TO  EGYPT.  201 

the  tribes  of  Mesopotamia  were  prepared  for  his  signal 
of  revolt.  Among  the  charges  brought  against  him  by 
Sargon  is  that,  "  against  the  will  of  the  gods  of  Babylon, 
he  had  sent  during  twelve  years  ambassadors."  One 
of  these  embassies  may  have  been  that  which  came  to 
Hezekiah  after  his  great  sickness  (chap,  xxxix.).  And 
Hezekiah  was  glad  of  them,  and  sJioived  them  the  house  of 
his  spicery,  the  silver,  and  the  gold,  arid  the  spices,  and  the 
precious  oil,  and  all  the  house  of  his  armour  and  all  that 
was  found  in  his  treasures ;  there  zuas  nothing  in  his  house 
>ior  in  all  his  dominion  that  Hezekiah  showed  them  not. 
Isaiah  was  indignant.  He  had  hitherto  kept  the  king 
from  formally  closing  with  Egypt ;  now  he  found  him 
eager  for  an  alliance  with  another  of  the  powers  of 
man.  But  instead  of  predicting  the  captivity  of  Babylon, 
as  he  predicted  the  captivity  of  Egypt,  by  the  hand  of 
Assyria,  Isaiah  declared,  according  to  chap,  xxxix., 
that  Babylon  would  som.e  day  take  Israel  captive ;  and 
Heztkiah  had  to  content  himself  with  the  prospect  that 
this  calamity  was  not  to  happen  in  his  time. 

Isaiah's  prediction  of  the  exile  of  Israel  to  Babylon 
is  a  matter  of  difficulty.  The  difficulty,  however,  is 
not  that  of  conceiving  how  he  could  have  foreseen 
an  event  which  took  place  more  than  a  century  later. 
Even  in  711  Babylon  was  not  an  unlikely  competitor 
for  the  supremacy  of  the  nations.  Sargon  himself  felt 
that  it  was  a  crisis  to  meet  her.  Very  little  might  have 
transferred  the  seat  of  power  from  the  Tigris  to  the 
Euphrates.  What,  therefore,  more  probable  than  that 
when  Hezekiah  disclosed  to  these  envo3'S  the  whole 
state  of  his  resources,  and  excused  himself  by  paying 
that  they  were  come  Jrom  a  far  country,  even  Babylon, 
Isaiah,  seized  by  a  strong  sense  of  how  near  Ba'^  ^on 
stood   to  the  throne   of  the   nations,   should   laugh   to 


THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


scorn  the  excuse  of  distance,  and  tell  the  king  that  his 
anxiety  to  secure  an  alliance  had  only  led  him  to  place 
the  temptation  to  rob  him  in  the  free  of  a  power  that 
was  certainly  on  the  way  to  be  able  to  do  it  ?  No, 
the  difficulty  is  not  that  the  prophet  foretold  a  cap- 
tivity of  the  Jews  in  Babylon,  but  that  we  cannot 
reconcile  what  he  says  of  that  captivity  with  his 
intimation  of  the  immediate  destruction  of  Babylon, 
which  has  come  down  to  us  in  chap.  xxi.  i — lO. 

In  this  prophecy  Isaiah  regards  Babylon  as  he  has 
been  regarding  Egypt — certain  to  go  down  before 
Assyria,  and  therefore  wholly  unprofitable  to  Judah. 
If  the  Jews  still  thought  of  returning  to  Egypt  when 
Sargon  hurried  back  from  completing  her  discomfiture 
in  order  to  beset  Babylon,  Isaiah  would  tell  them  it  was 
no  use.  Assyria  has  brought  her  full  power  to  bear  on 
the  Babylonians ;  Elam  and  Media  are  with  her.  He 
travails  with  pain  for  the  result.  Babylon  is  not  expect- 
ing a  siege ;  but  preparing  the  table,  eating  and  drinking^ 
when  suddenly  the  cry  rings  through  her,  ^^  Arise,  ye 
princes  ;  anoint  the  shield.  The  enemy  is  upon  us."  So 
terrible  and  so  sudden  a  warrior  is  this  Sargon  !  At 
his  words  nations  move ;  when  he  saith,  Go  up,  O  Elam  ! 
Besiege,  O  Media  !  it  is  done.  And  he  falls  upon  his 
foes  before  their  weapons  are  ready.  Then  the  prophet 
shrinks  back  from  the  result  of  his  imagination  of  how 
it  happened— for  that  is  too  painful — upon  the  simple 
certainty,  which  God  revealed  to  him,  that  it  must 
happen.  As  surely  as  Sargon's  columns  went  against 
Babylon,  so  surely  must  the  message  return  that 
Babylon  has  fallen.  Isaiah  puts  it  this  way.  The 
Lord  bade  him  get  on  his  watchtower — that  is  his 
phrase  for  observing  the  signs  of  the  times — and  speak 
whatever  he  saw.     And  he  saw  a  military  column  on  the 


jcx.,  xxi.  I— lo.]         DRIFTING   TO  EGYPT.  203 

march :  a  troop  of  horsemen  by  pairs,  a  troop  of  asses, 
a  troop  of  camels.  It  passed  him  out  of  sight,  and  he 
hearkened  very  diligently  for  news.  But  none  came.  It 
was  a  long  campaign.  And  he  cried  like  a  lion  for 
impatience,  O  my  Lord,  I  stand  continually  upon  the 
ivatchtoivcr  by  day,  and  am  set  in  my  ward  every  night. 
Till  at  last,  behold,  there  came  a  troop  of  men,  horsemen 
in  pairs,  and  now  one  answered  and  said.  Fallen,  fallen  is 
Babylon,  and  all  the  images  of  her  gods  he  hath  broken  to 
the  ground.  The  meaning  of  this  very  elliptical  pas- 
sage is  just  this  :  as  surely  as  the  prophet  saw  Sargon's 
columns  go  out  against  Babylon,  so  sure  was  he  of 
her  fall.  Turning  to  his  Jerusalem,  he  says,  My  own 
threshed  one,  son  of  my  floor,  that  which  I  have  heard 
from  Jehovah  of  hosts,  the  God  of  Israel,  have  I  declared 
unto  you.  How  gladly  would  I  have  told  you  otherwise  ! 
But  this  is  His  message  and  His  will.  Everything 
must  go  down  before  this  Assyrian. 

Sargon  entered  Babylon  before  the  year  was  out,  and 
with  her  conquest  established  his  fear  once  more  down 
to  the  borders  of  Egypt.  In  his  lifetime  neither  Judah 
nor  her  neighbours  attempted  again  to  revolt.  But 
Egypt's  intrigue  did  not  cease.  Her  mines  were  once 
more  laid,  and  the  feudatories  of  Assyria  only  waited 
for  their  favourite  opportunity,  a  change  of  tyrants  on 
the  throne  at  Nineveh.  This  came  very  soon.  In  the 
fifteenth  year  of  his  reign,  having  finally  established  his 
empire,  Sargon  inscribed  on  the  palace  at  Khorsabad 
the  following  prayer  to  Assur :  "  May  it  be  that  I, 
Sargon,  who  inhabit  this  palace,  may  be  preserved  by 
destiny  during  long  years  for  a  long  life,  for  the  happi- 
ness of  my  body,  for  the  satisfaction  of  my  heart,  and 
may  I  arrive  to  my  end  !  May  I  accumulate  in  this 
palace  immense  treasures,  the  booties  of  all  countries, 


204  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

the  products  of  mountains  and  valleys  ! "  The  god  did 
not  hear.  A  few  months  later,  in  705,  Sargon  was 
murdered ;  and  before  Sennacherib,  his  successor, 
sat  down  on  the  throne,  the  whole  of  Assyrian 
supremacy  in  the  south-west  of  Asia  went  up  in  the  air. 
It  was  the  second  of  the  great  Explosions  we  spoke  of, 
and  the  rest  of  Isaiah's  prophecies  are  concerned  with 
Its  results. 


BOOK    III. 

ORATIONS  ON  THE  EGYPTIAN  IN- 
TRIGUES AND  ORACLES  ON 
FOREIGN    NATIONS,    705—702    bg, 


Isaiah  : — 

xxix.    About  703. 

XXX.     A  little  later. 

xxxi.  „        „ 

xxxii.  I — 8. 

xxxii.  9 — 20.     Date  uncertaiBfc 


Xiv.  28— xxi.     736 — 70a 
xxiii.     About  703. 


BOOK  III. 

WE  now  enter  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah's  old  age, 
those  which  he  pubHshed  after  705,  wlien 
his  ministry  had  lasted  for  at  least  thirty-five  years. 
They  cover  the  years  between  705,  the  date  of  Senna- 
cherib's accession  to  the  Assyrian  throne,  and  701, 
when  his  army  suddenly  disappeared  from  before 
Jerusalem. 

They  fall  into  three  groups  : — 

1.  Chaps,  xxix. — xxxii.,  dealing  with  Jewish  politics 
while  Sennacherib  is  still  far  from  Palestine,  704 — 702, 
and  having  Egypt  for  their  chief  interest,  Assyria 
lowering  in  the  background. 

2.  Chaps,  xiv.  28 — xxi.  and  xxiii.,  a  group  of 
oracles  on  foreign  nations,  threatened,  like  Judah,  by 
Assyria. 

3.  Chaps,  i.,  xxii.,  and  xxxiii.,  and  the  historical 
narrative  in  xxxvi.  and  xxxvii.,  dealing  with  Senna- 
cherib's invasion  of  Judah  and  siege  of  Jerusalem  in 
701  ;  Egypt  and  every  foreign  nation  now  fallen  out  of 
sight,  and  the  storm  about  the  Holy  City  too  thick 
for  the  prophet  to  see  beyond  his  immediate  neigh- 
bourhood. 

The  first  and  second  of  these  groups — orations  on 
the  intrigues  with  Egypt  and  oracles  on  the  foreign 
nations — delivered    while   Sennacherib    was    still    far 


2o8  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

from  Syria,  form  the  subject   of   this   Third  Book  of 
our  exposition. 

The  prophecies  on  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  are 
sufficiently  numerous  and  distinctive  to  be  put  by 
themselves,  along  with  their  appendix  (xxxviii.,  xxxix.), 
in  uur  Fourth  Book. 


I 


CHAPTER  XII 

ARIEL,     ARIEL 

Isaiah    xxix.    (about   703    B.C.), 

N  705  Sargon,  King  of  Assyria,  was  murdered, 
and  Sennacherib,  his  second  son,  succeeded  him. 
Before  the  new  ruler  mounted  the  throne,  the  vast 
empire,  which  his  father  had  consohdated,  broke  into 
rebelHon,  and  down  to  the  borders  of  Egypt  cities  and 
tribes  declared  themselves  again  independent.  Senna- 
cherib attacked  his  problem  with  Assyrian  promptitude. 
There  were  two  forces,  to  subdue  which  at  the 
beginning  made  the  reduction  of  the  rest  certain : 
Assyria's  vassal  kingdom  and  future  rival  for  the 
supremacy  of  the  world,  Babylon ;  and  her  present 
rival,  Egypt.     Sennacherib  marched  on  Babylon  ftrst. 

While  he  did  so  the  smaller  States  prepared  to 
resist  him.  Too  small  to  rely  on  their  own  resources, 
they  looked  to  Egypt,  and  among  others  who  sought 
help  in  that  quarter  was  Judah.  There  had  always 
been,  as  we  have  seen,  an  Egyptian  party  among  the 
pohticians  of  Jerusalem  ;  and  Assyria's  difficulties  now 
naturally  increased  its  influence.  Most  of  the  pro- 
phecies in  chaps,  xxix. — xxxii.  are  forward  to  condemn 
the  alliance  v/ith  Egypt  and  the  irreligious  politics  of 
which  it  was  the  fruit. 

VOL.    I.  14 


THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


At  the  beginning,  however,  other  facts  claim  Isaiah's 
attention.  After  the  first  excitement,  consequent  on 
the  threats  of  Sennacherib,  the  politicians  do  not  seem 
to  have  been  specially  active.  Sennacherib  found  the 
reduction  of  Babylon  a  harder  task  than  he  expected, 
and  in  the  end  it  turned  out  to  be  three  years  before 
he  was  free  to  march  upon  Syria.  As  one  winter  after 
another  left  the  work  of  the  A-Ssyrian  army  in  Meso- 
potamia still  unfinished,  the  political  tension  in  Judah 
must  have  relaxed.  The  Government — for  King 
Hezekiah  seems  at  last  to  have  been  brought  round 
to  believe  in  Egypt — pursued  their  negotiations  no 
longer  with  that  decision  and  real  patriotism,  which 
the  sense  of  near  danger  rouses  in  even  the  most 
selfish  and  mistaken  of  politicians,  but  rcither  with  the 
heedlessness  of  principle,  the  desire  to  show  their 
own  cleverness  and  the  passion  for  intrigue  which  run 
riot  among  statesmen,  when  danger  is  near  enough  to 
give  an  excuse  for  doing  something,  but  too  far  away 
to  oblige  anything  to  be  done  in  earnest.  Into  this 
false  ease,  and  the  meaningless,  faithless  politics,  which 
swarmed  in  it,  Isaiah  hurled  his  strong  prophecy  of 
chap.  xxix.  Before  he  exposes  in  chaps,  xxx.,  xxxi., 
the  folly  of  trusting  to  Egypt  in  the  hour  of  danger,  he 
has  here  the  prior  task  of  proving  that  hour  to  be  near 
and  very  terrible.  It  is  but  one  instance  of  the 
igiiOrance  and  fickleness  of  the  people,  that  their 
prophet  has  first  to  rouse  them  to  a  sense  of  their 
peril,  and  then  to  restrain  their  excitem.ent  under  it 
■from  rushing  headlong  for  help  to  Egypt. 

Chap.  xxix.  is  an  cbscure  oracle,  but  its  obscurity  is 
designed.  Isaiah  was  dealing  with  a  people,  in  whom 
political  security  and  religious  formalism  had  stifled 
both  reason  and  conscience.     He  sought  to  rouse  them 


ix.]  ARIEL,   ARIEL. 


by  a  startling  message  in  a  mysterious  form.  He 
addressed  the  cit}'  by  an  enigma  : — 

Ho  !  Ari-El,  Ari-El !  City  David  beleaguered  !  Add 
a  year  to  a  year,  let  the  feasts  rmi  their  round,  then  ivill  I 
bring  straitness  upon  Ari-El,  and  there  shall  be  moaning 
and  bemoaning,*  and  yet  she  shall  be  unto  Me  as  an 
Ari-El. 

The  general  bearing  of  this  enigma  became  plain 
enough  after  the  sore  siege  and  sudden  deliverance  of 
Jerusalem  in  701.  But  we  are  unable  to  make  out  one 
or  two  of  its  points.  Ari-El  may  mean  either  The 
Lion  of  God  (2  Sam.  xxiii.  20),  or  The  Hearth  of  God 
(Ezek.  xliii.  15,  16).  If  the  same  sense  is  to  be  given 
to  the  four  utterances  of  the  name,  then  God' s-Lion  suits 
better  the  description  of  ver.  4;  but  God^s-Hearth  seems 
suggested  by  the  feminine  pronoun  in  ver.  i,  and  is  a 
conception  to  which  Isaiah  returns  in  this  same  group 
of  prophecies  (xxxi.  9).  It  is  possible  that  this 
ambiguity  was  part  of  the  prophet's  design  ;  but  if  he 
uses  the  name  in  both  senses,  some  of  the  force  of  his 
enigma  is  lost  to  us.  In  any  case,  however,  we  get  a 
picturesque  form  for  a  plain  meaning.  In  a  year  after 
the  present  year  is  out,  says  Isaiah,  God  Himself  will 
straiten  the  city,  whose  inhabitants  are  now  so  careless, 
and  she  shall  be  full  of  mourning  and  lamentation. 
Nevertheless  in  the  end  she  shall  be  a  true  Ari-El  :  be 
it  a  true  God! s-Lion,  victor  and  hero ;  or  a  true  God^s- 
Hearth,  His  own  inviolate  shrine  and  sanctuary. 

The  next  few  verses  (3 — 8)  expand  this  warning.  In 
plain  words,  Jerusalem  is  to  undergo  a  siege.  God 
Himself  shall  encamp  against  thee — round  about  reads 
our    English  version,   but  more   probably,  as  with  the 

*  Chcyne. 


THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


change  of  a  letter,  the  Septiiagint  reads  it — like  David. 
If  we  take  this  second  reading,  the  reference  to  David 
in  the  enigma  itself  (ver.  i)  becomes  clear.  The  prophet 
has  a  very  startling  message  to  deliver :  that  God  'vill 
besiege  His  ovvn  city,  the  city  of  David  !  Before  God 
can  make  her  in  truth  His  own,  make  her  verify  her 
nam.e,  He  will  have  to  beleaguer  and  reduce  her.  For 
so  novel  and  startling  an  intimation  the  prophet  pleads 
a  precedent :  "  City  whicJi  David  himself  hclcaguoxd ! 
Once  before  in  thy  history,  ere  the  first  time  thou  Vv'ast 
made  God's  own  hearth,  thou  hadst  to  be  besieged.  As 
then,  so  now.  Before  thou  canst  again  be  a  true  Ari-El 
I  must  beleaguer  thee  like  David.^'  This  reading  and 
interpretation  gives  to  the  enigma  a  reason  and  a  force 
which  it  does  not  otherwise  possess. 

Jerusalem,  then,  shall  be  reduced  to  the  very  dust, 
and  whine  and  whimper  in  it  (like  a  sick  Hon,  if  this  be 
the  figure  the  prophet  is  pursuing),  when  suddenly  it 
is  the  surge  of  her  foes — literally  thy  strangers — whom  the 
prophet  sees  as  small  dust,  and  as  passing  chaff  shall 
the  surge  of  tyrants  be ;  yea,  it  shall  be  in  the  twinkling 
of  an  eye,  suddenly.  From  Jehovah  of  hosts  shall  she  be 
visited  with  thunder  and  with  earthquake  and  a  great 
noise, — storm-wind,  and  tempest  and  the  flame  of  fire 
devouring.  And  it  shall  be  as  a  dream,  a  vision  of 
the  night,  the  surge  of  all  the  nations  that  war  against 
Ariel,  yea  all  that  war  against  her  and  her  stronghold, 
and  they  that  press  in  upon  her.  And  it  shall  be  as  if 
the  hungry  had  been  dreaming,  and  lo !  he  was  eating; 
but  he  hath  aivaked,  and  his  soul  is  empty  :  and  as  if  the 
thirsty  had  been  dreaming,  attd  lo  !  he  was  drinking;  but 
he  hath  awaked,  and  lo  !  he  is  faint,  and  his  soul  is 
ravenous :  thus  shall  be  the  surge  of  all  the  nations 
that  war  against  Mount  Zion.      Now  that    is    a  very 


xxix.]  ARIEL,   ARIEL.  213 

dcHnite  prediction,  and  in  its  essentials  was  fulfilled. 
In  the  end  Jerusalem  was  invested  by  Sennacherib,  and 
reduced  to  sore  straits,  when  very  suddenly — it  would 
appear  from  other  records,  in  a  single  night — the 
beleaguering  force  disappeared.  This  actually  hap- 
pened ;  and  although  the  main  business  of  a  prophet, 
as  we  now  clearly  understand,  was  not  to  predict 
definite  events,  yet,  since  the  result  here  predicted  was 
one  on  which  Isaiah  staked  his  prophetic  reputation 
and  pledged  the  honour,  of  Jehovah  and  the  continuanca 
of  the  true  religion  among  men,  it  will  be  profitable  for 
us  to  look  at  it  for  a  little. 

Isaiah  foretells  a  great  event  and  some  details.  The 
event  is  a  double  one :  the  reduction  of  Jerusalem  to  the 
direst  straits  by  siege  and  her  deliverance  by  the  sudden 
disappearance  of  the  besieging  army.  The  details  are 
that  the  siege  will  take  place  after  a  year  (though  the 
prophet's  statement  of  time  is  perhaps  too  vague  to 
be  treated  as  a  prediction),  and  that  the  deliverance 
will  come  as  a  great  natural  convulsion — thunder,  earth- 
quake and  fire — ^which  it  certainly  did  not  do.  The 
double  event,  however,  stripped  of  these  details,  did 
essentially  happen. 

Now  it  is  plain  that  any  one  with  a  considerable 
knowledge  of  the  world  at  that  day  must  easily  have 
been  able  to  assert  the  probability  of  a  siege  of  Jerusalem 
by  the  mixed  nations  who  composed  Sennacherib's 
armies.  Isaiah's  orations  are  full  of  proofs  of  his  close 
acquaintance  with  the  peoples  of  the  world,  and  Assyria, 
who  was  above  them.  Moreover,  his  political  advice, 
given  at  certain  crises  of  Judah's  history,  was  con- 
spicuous not  only  for  its  religiousness,  but  for  what  we 
should  call  its  "  vvorldly-wisdom  : "  it  was  vindicated  by 
events.     Isaiah,    however,  would  not  have  understood 


214  ^^^^  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


tlie  distinction  we  have  just  made.  To  him  political 
prudence  was  part  of  religion.  The  Lord  of  hosts  is  for 
a  spirit  of  judgement  to  him.  that  sittct/i  in  Judgement,  and 
for  strength  to  t/iem  t/iat  turn  back  the  battle  to  the  gate. 
Knowledge  of  men,  experience  of  nations,  the  mental 
strength  which  never  forgets  history,  and  is  quick  to 
mark  new  movements  as  they  rise,  Isaiah  would  have 
called  the  direct  inspiration  of  God.  And  it  was  certainly 
these  qualities  in  this  Hebrew,  which  provided  him 
with  the  materials  for  his  prediction  of  the  siege  of 
Jerusalem. 

But  it  has  not  been  found  that  such  talents  by  them- 
selves enable  statesmen  calmly  to  face  the  future,  or 
clearly  to  predict  it.  Such  knowledge  of  the  past, 
such  vigilance  for  the  present,  by  themselves  only 
embarrass,  and  often  deceive.  They  are  the  materials 
for  prediction,  but  a  ruling  principle  is  required  to 
arrange  them.  A  general  may  have  a  strong  and  well- 
drilled  force  under  him,  and  a  miserably  weak  foe  in 
front ;  but  if  the  sun  is  not  going  to  rise  to-morrow,  if 
the  laws  of  nature  are  not  going  to  hold,  his  familiarity 
with  his  soldiers  and  expertness  in  handling  them  will 
not  give  him  confidence  to  offer  battle.  He  takes 
certain  principles  for  granted,  and  on  these  his  soldiers 
become  of  use  to  him,  and  he  makes  his  venture. 
Even  so  Isaiah  handled  his  mass  of  information  by  the 
grasp  which  he  had  of  certain  principles,  and  his  facts 
fell  clear  into  order  before  his  confident  eyes.  He 
believed  in  the  real  government  of  God.  /  also  saw 
the  Lord  sitting,  high  and  lifted  up.  He  felt  that 
God  had  even  this  Assyria  in  His  hands.  He  knew 
that  all  God's  ends  were  righteousness,  and  he  was 
still  of  the  conviction  that  Judah  for  her  wickedness 
required    punishment    at    the    Lord's    hands.      Grant 


xxix.]  ARIEL,   ARIEL.  215 

these  convictions  to  him  in  the  superhuman  strength 
in  which  he  tells  us  he  was  conscious  of  receiving 
them  from  God,  and  it  is  easy  to  see  how  Isaiah  could 
not  help  predicting  a  speedy  siege  of  Jerusalem,  how 
he  already  beheld  the  valleys  around  her  bristling  with 
barbarian  spears. 

The  prediction  of  the  sudden  raising  of  this  siege 
was  the  equally  natural  corollary  to  another  religious 
conviction,  which  held  the  prophet  with  as  much 
intensity,  as  that  which  possessed  him  with  the 
need  of  Judah's  punishment.  Isaiah  never  slacked  his 
hold  on  the  truth  that  in  the  end  God  would  save 
Zion,  and  keep  her  for  Himself.  Through  whatever 
destruction,  a  root  and  remnant  of  the  Jewish  people 
must  survive.  Zion  is  impregnable  because  God  is  in 
her,  and  because  her  inviolateness  is  necessary  for  the 
continuance  of  true  religion  in  the  world.  Therefore 
as  confident  as  his  prediction  of  the  siege  of  Jerusalem 
is  Isaiah's  prediction  of  her  delivery.  And  while  the 
prophet  wraps  the  fact  in  vague  circumstance,  while  he 
masks,  as  it  were,  his  ignorance  of  how  in  detail  it 
v/ill  actually  take  place  by  calling  up  a  great  natural 
convulsion,  yet  he  makes  it  abundantly  clear —  as, 
with  his  religious  convictions  and  his  knowledge  of 
the  Assyrian  power,  he  cannot  help  doing — that  the 
deliverance  will  be  unexpected  and  unexplainable  by 
the  natural  circumstances  of  the  Jews  themselves,  that 
it  will  be  evident  as  the  immediate  deed  of  God. 

It  is  well  for  us  to  understand  this.  We  shall  get 
rid  of  the  mechanical  idea  of  prophecy,  according  to 
which  prophets  made  exact  predictions  of  fact  by  some 
particular  and  purely  official  endowment.  We  shall  feel 
that  prediction  of  this  kind  was  due  to  the  most  unmis- 
takeable  inspiration,  the  influence  upon  the  prophet's 


2i6  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

knowledge  of  aflViirs  of  two  powerful  religious  con- 
victions, for  which  he  himself  was  strongly  sure  that  he 
had  the  warrant  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 

Into  the  eas}',  selfish  politics  of  Jerusalem,  then, 
Isaiah  sent  this  thunderbolt,  this  definite  prediction : 
that  in  a  year  or  more  Jerusalem  would  be  besieged 
and  reduced  to  the  direst  straits.  He  tells  us  that 
it  simply  dazed  the  people.  They  were  like  men 
suddenly  startled  from  sleep,  who  are  too  stupid  to  read 
a  message  pushed  into  their  hands  (vv.  9 — 12). 

Then  Isaiah  gives  God's  own  explanation  of  this 
stupidity.  The  cause  of  it  is  simply  religious  formalism. 
This  people  draw  nigh  unto  Me  tvith  tJicir  month,  and 
ivith  their  lips  do  they  honour  Me,  hut  their  hcaH  is  far 
from  Me,  and  their  fear  of  Me  is  a  mere  commandment 
of  men,  a  thing  learned  by  rote.  This  was  what  Israel 
called  religion — bare  ritual  and  doctrine,  a  round  of 
sacrifices  and  prayers  in  adherence  to  the  tradition  of 
the  fathers.  But  in  life  they  never  thought  of  God. 
It  did  not  occur  to  these  citizens  of  Jerusalem  that  He 
cared  about  their  politics,  their  conduct  of  justice,  or 
their  discussions  and  bargains  with  one  another.  Of 
these  they  said,  taking  their  own  way.  Who  sceth  us, 
and  who  knoiveth  us?  Only  in  the  Temple  did  they 
feel  God's  fear,  and  there  merely  in  imitation  of  one 
another.  None  had  an  original  vision  of  God  in  real 
life;  they  learned  other  men's  thoughts  about  Him,  and 
took  other  men's  words  upon  their  lips,  while  their 
heart  was  far  away.  In  fact,  speaking  words  and 
listening  to  words  had  wearied  the  spirit  and  stifled  the 
conscience  of  them. 

For  such  a  disposition  Isaiah  says  there  is  only  one 
cure.  It  is  a  new  edition  of  his  old  gospel,  that  God 
speaks  to  us  in  facts,  not  forms.     Worship  and  a  lifeless 


ix.]  ARIEL,   ARIEL. 


doctrine  have  demoralized  this  people.  God  shall 
make  Himself  so  felt  in  real  life  that  even  their  dull 
senses  shall  not  be  able  to  mistake  Him.  Therefore^ 
behold,  I  am  proceeding  to  work  mm-vellmisly  upon  this 
people,  a  marvellous  work  and  a  wonder  !  and  the  wisdom 
of  their  wise  men  shall  perish,  and  the  cleverness  of  their 
clever  ones  shall  be  obscured.  This  is  not  the  promise 
of  what  we  call  a  miracle.  It  is  a  historical  event  on 
the  same  theatre  as  the  politicians  are  showing  their 
cleverness,  but  it  shall  put  them  all  to  shame,  and  by 
its  force  make  the  dullest  feel  that  God's  own  hand  is 
in  it.  What  the  people  had  ceased  to  attribute  to 
Jehovah  was  ordinary  intelligence ;  they  had  virtually 
said,  He  hath  no  understanding.  The  marvellous  work, 
therefore,  which  He  threatens  shall  be  a  work  of 
wisdom,  not  some  convulsion  of  nature  to  cow  their 
spirits,  but  a  wonderful  political  result,  that  shall  shame 
their  conceit  of  cleverness,  and  teach  them  reverence 
for  the  will  and  skill  of  God.  Are  the  politicians  trying 
to  change  the  surface  of  the  world,  thinking  that  they  are 
turning  things  upside  down,  and  supposing  that  they  can 
keep  God  out  of  account :  Who  seeth  us,  and  who  knoweth 
us  f  God  Himself  is  the  real  Arranger  and  Politician. 
He  will  turn  things  upside  down !  Compared  with 
their  attempt,  how  vast  His  results  shall  be  !  As  if  the 
whole  surface  of  the  earth  were  altered,  Lebanon  changed 
into  garden-land,  and  garden-land  counted  as  forest! 
But  this,  of  course,  is  metaphor.  The  intent  of  the 
miracle  is  to  show  that  God  hath  understanding ;  there- 
fore it  must  be  a  work,  the  prudence  and  intellectual 
force  of  which  politicians  can  appreciate,  and  it  shall 
take  place  in  their  politics.  But  not  for  mere  astonish- 
ment's sake  is  tJie  zvondcr  to  be  done.  For  blessing  and 
morality  shall  it  be  :  to  cure  the  deaf  and  blind  ;  to  give 


2iS  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

to  the  meek  and  the  poor  a  new  joy ;  to  confound  the 
tyrant  and  the  scorner;  to  make  Israel  worthy  of  God 
and  her  own  great  fathers.  Therefore  tJiiis  saith  Jehovah 
to  the  house  of  Jacob,  He  that  redeemed  Abraham:  Not 
now  ashamed  shall  Jacob  be,  and  not  now  shall  his  coun- 
tenance blanch.  So  unworthy  hitherto  have  this  stupid 
people  been  of  so  great  ancestors  !  Bid  now  when  his 
(Jacob's)  children  behold  the  work  of  My  hand  in  the  midst 
of  him,  tliey  sJiall  hallow  My  name,  yea,  they  shall  hallow 
the  Holy  One  of  Jacob,  and  the  God  of  Israel  shall  they 
make  their  fear.  They  also  that  err  in  spirit  shall  know 
understanding,  and  they  that  are  unsettled  shall  learn  to 
accept  doctrine. 

Such  is  the  meaning  of  this  strong  chapter.  It  is 
instructive  in  two  ways. 

First,  it  very  clearly  declares  Isaiah's  view  of  the 
method  of  God's  revelation.  Isaiah  says  nothing  of 
the  Temple,  the  Shcchinah,  the  Altar,  or  the  Scripture ; 
but  he  points  out  how  much  the  exclusive  confinement 
of  religion  to  forms  and  texts  has  deadened  the  hearts 
of  his  countrymen  towards  God.  In  your  real  life,  he 
says  to  them,  you  are  to  seek,  and  you  shall  find,  Him. 
There  He  is  evident  in  miracles, — not  physical  inter- 
ruptions and  convulsions,  but  social  mercies  and  moral 
providences.  The  quickening  of  conscience,  the  dis- 
persion of  ignorance,  poor  men  awakening  to  the  fact 
that  God  is  with  them,  the  overthrow  of  the  social 
tyrant,  history's  plain  refutation  of  the  atheist,  the 
growth  of  civic  justice  and  charity — In  these,  said  the 
Hebrew  prophet  tc  the  Old  Testament  believer, 
B<  hold  your  God  ! 

Wherefore,  secondly,  we  also  are  to  look  for  God  in 
events  and  deeds.  We  arc  to  know  that  nothing  can 
roaipe;  sate  us  for  the  loss  of  the  open  vision  of  God's 


xxix.]  ARIEL,   ARIEL.  2 19 

working  in  history  and  in  life  nbout  us, — not  ecstasy  of 
worship  nor  orthodoxy  of  doctrine.  To  confine  our 
rehgion  to  these  latter  things  is  to  become  dull  towards 
God  even  in  them,  and  to  forget  Him  everywhere 
else.  And  this  is  a  fault  of  our  day,  just  as  it  was  of 
Isaiah's.  So  much  of  our  fear  of  God  is  conventional, 
orthodox  and  not  original,  a  trick  caught  from  men's 
words  or  fashions,  not  a  part  of  ourselves,  nor  won,  like 
all  that  is  real  in  us,  from  contact  with  real  life.  In 
our  politics,  in  our  conduct  with  men,  in  the  struggle 
of  our  own  hearts  for  knowledge  and  for  temperance, 
and  in  service — there  we  are  to  learn  to  fear  God.  But 
there,  and  wherever  else  we  are  busy,  self  comes  too 
much  in  the  way;  we  are  fascinated  with  our  own 
cleverness ;  we  ignore  God,  saying,  Who  seeih  us  f 
who  knoweth  us  f  We  get  to  expect  Him  only  in  the 
Temple  and  on  the  Sabbath,  and  then  only  to  influence 
our  emotions.  But  it  is  in  deeds,  and  where  we  feel 
life  most  real,  that  we  are  to  look  for  Him.  He  makes 
Himself  evident  to  us  by  wonderful  works. 

For  these  He  has  given  us  three  theatres — the  Bible, 
our  country's  history,  and  for  each  man  his  own  life. 

We  have  to  take  the  Bible,  and  especially  the  life  of 
Christ,  and  to  tell  ourselves  that  these  wonderful  events 
did  really  take  place.  In  Christ  God  did  dwell ;  by 
Christ  He  spoke  to  man;  man  was  converted,  redeemed, 
sanctified,  beyond  all  doubt.  These  were  real  events. 
To  be  convinced  of  their  reality  were  worth  a  hundred 
prayers. 

Then  let  us  toUow  the  example  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets,  and  search  the  history  of  our  own  people 
for  the  realities  of  God.  Carlyle  says  in  a  note  to 
Cromwell's  fourth  speech  to  Parliament,  that  "  the  Bible 
of  every  nation  is  its  own  history."    This  note  is  drawn 


220  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

from  Carlyle  by  Cromwell's  frequent  insistence,  that 
we  must  ever  be  turning  from  forms  and  rituals  to 
study  God's  will  and  ways  in  history.  And  that  speech 
-  of  Cromwell  is  perhaps  the  best  sermon  ever  delivered 
on  the  subject  of  this  Chapter.  For  he  said  :  "  What 
are  ail  our  histories  but  God  manifesting  Himself,  that 
He  hath  shaken,  and  tumbled  down  and  trampled  upon 
everything  that  He  hath  not  planted  ! "  And  again, 
speaking  of  our  own  history,  he  said  to  the  House  of 
Commons  :  "  We  are  a  people  with  the  stamp  of  God 
upon  us,  .  .  .  whose  appearances  and  providences 
among  us  were  not  to  be  outmatched  by  any  story." 
Truly  this  is  national  religion  : — the  reverential  acknow- 
ledgment of  God's  hand  in  history ;  the  admiration  and 
effort  of  moral  progress  ;  the  stirring  of  conscience  when 
we  see  wrong ;  the  expectation,  when  evil  abounds,  that 
God  will  bring  justice  and  purity  to  us  if  we  labour 
with  Him  for  them. 

But  for  each  man  there  is  the  final  duty  of  turning  to 
himself. 

"  My  soul  repairs  its  fault 
When,  sharpening  sense's  hebetude, 
She  turns  on  my  own  Hfe !    So  viewed, 
No  mere  mote's  breadth  but  teems  immense 
"With  witnessings  of  providence  : 
And  woe  to  me  if  when  I  look 
Upon  that  record,  the  sole  book 
Unsealed  to  me,  I  take  no  heed 
Of  any  warning  that  1  read!  "  * 

*  Browning's  Chrislmas  Eve. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

POLITICS  AND  FAITH, 
Isaiah    xxx.    (about    702    b.c)i 

THIS  prophecy  of  Isaiah  rises  out  of  circumstances 
a  little  more  developed  than  those  in  which 
chap.  xxix.  was  composed.  Sennacherib  is  still  engaged 
with  Babylon,  and  it  seems  that  it  will  yet  be  long  before 
he  marches  his  armies  upon  Syria.  But  Isaiah's  warn- 
ing has  at  last  roused  the  politicians  of  Judah  from 
their  carelessness.  We  need  not  suppose  that  they 
believed  all  that  Isaiah  predicted  about  the  dire  siege 
which  Jerusalem  should  shortly  undergo  and  her  sudden 
deliverance  at  the  hand  of  the  Lord.  Without  the  two 
strong  religious  convictions,  in  the  strength  of  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  he  made  the  prediction,  it  was  im- 
possible to  believe  that  this  siege  and  deliverance  must 
certainly  happen.  But  the  politicians  were  at  least 
startled  into  doing  something.  They  did  not  betake 
themselves  to  God,  to  whom  it  had  been  the  purpose 
of  Isaiah's  last  oration  to  shut  them  up.  They  only 
flung  themselves  with  more  haste  into  their  intrigues 
with  Egypt.  But  in  truth  haste  and  business  were  all 
that  was  in  their  politics  :  these  were  devoid  both  of 
intelligence  and  faith.  Where  the  sole  motive  of  con- 
duct is  fear,  whether  uneasiness  or  panic,   force  may 


THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


be  displayed,  but  neither  sagacity  nor  any  moral 
quality.  This  was  the  case  with  Judah's  Egyptian 
policy,  and  Isaiah  now  spends  two  chapters  in  denounc- 
ing it.  His  condemnation  is  twofold.  The  negotia- 
tions with  Egypt,  he  says,  are  bad  politics  and  bad 
religion  ;  but  the  bad  religion  is  the  root  and  source 
of  the  other.  Yet  while  he  vents  all  his  scorn  on  the 
politics,  he  uses  pity  and  sweet  persuasiveness  when 
he  comes  to  speak  of  the  eternal  significance  of  the 
religion.  The  two  chapters  are  also  instructive,  beyond 
most  others  of  the  Old  Testament,  in  the  light  they 
cast  on  revelation — its  scope  and  methods. 

Isaiah  begins  with  the  bad  politics.  In  order  to 
understand  how  bad  they  were,  we  must  turn  for  a 
little  to  this  Egypt,  with  whom  Judah  was  now  seeking 
an  alliance. 

In  our  late  campaign  on  the  Upper  Nile  we  heard  a 
great  deal  of  the  Mudir  of  Dongola.  His  province 
covers  part  of  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Ethiopia ;  and  in 
Meirawi,  the  village  whose  name  appeared  in  so  many 
telegrams,  we  can  still  discover  Meroe,  the  capital  of 
Ethiopia.  Now  in  Isaiah's  day  the  king  of  Ethiopia 
was,  what  the  Mudir  of  Dongola  was  at  the  time  of  our 
war,  an  ambitious  person  of  no  small  energy ;  and  the 
ruler  of  Egypt  proper  was,  what  the  Khedive  was,  a 
person  of  little  influence  or  resource.  Consequently 
there  happened  what  might  have  happened  a  few  years 
ago  but  for  the  presence  of  the  British  army  in  Egypt. 
The  Ethiopian  came  down  the  Nile,  defeated  Pharaoh 
and  burned  him  alive.  But  he  died,  and  his  son  died 
after  him ;  and  before  their  successor  could  also  come 
down  the  Nile,  the  legitimate  heir  to  Pharaoh  had  re- 
gained part  of  his  power.  Some  years  ensued  of  uncer- 
tainty as  to  who  was  the  real  ruler  of  Egypt. 


xxx.J  POLITICS  AND  FAITH.  223 

It  was  in  this  time  of  unsettlement  that  Judah  sought 
Egypt's  help.  The  ignorance  of  the  pohcy  was 
manifest  to  all  who  were  not  Winded  by  fear  of  Assyria 
or  party  feehng.  To  Isaiah  the  Egyptian  alliance  is  a 
folly  and  fatahty  that  deserve  all  his  scorn  (vv.  i — 8). 

J4^^oe  to  the  rebellions  children^  saith  the  Lord,  executing 
a  policy,  but  it  is  not  from  Me ;  and  weaving  a  web,  but 
not  of  My  spirit,  that  they  may  heap  sin  upon  sin ;  wJio 
set  tliemselves  on  the  way  to  go  down  to  Egypt,  and  at 
My  mouth  they  have  not  inquired,  to  flee  to  the  refuge  oj 
Pharaoh,  and  to  hide  themselves  in  the  shadow  of  Egypt. 
But  tJte  refuge  of  Pharaoh  shall  be  unto  you  for  shame, 
and  the  hiding  in  the  shadow  of  Egypt  for  confusion ! 
How  can  a  broken  Egypt  help  you  ?  IVhen  his  princes 
are  at  Zoan,  and  his  ambassadors  are  come  to  Hanes, 
they  shall  all  be  ashamed  of  a  people  that  cannot  profit 
them,  that  are  not  for  help  nor  for  proft,  but  for  shame, 
and  also  for  reproach. 

Then  Isaiah  pictures  the  useless  caravan  Vv'hich  Judah 
has  sent  with  tribute  to  Egypt,  strings  of  asses  and 
camels  struggling  through  the  desert,  land  of  trouble 
and  anguish,  amid  lions  and  serpents,  and  all  for  a 
people  that  sliall  not  profit  them  (ver.  6). 

What  tempted  Judah  to  this  profitless  expenditure  of 
time  and  money  ?  Egypt  had  a  great  reputation,  and 
was  a  mighty  promisor.  Her  brilliant  antiquity  had 
gi\'en  her  a  habit  of  generous  promise,  and  dazzled 
other  nations  into  trusting  her.  Indeed,  so  full  were 
Egyptian  politics  of  bluster  and  big  language,  that  the 
Hebrews  had  a  nickname  for  Egypt.  They  called  her 
Rahab — Stormy-speech,  Blusterer,  Braggart.  It  was  the 
term  also  for  the  crocodile,  as  being  a  monster,  so  that 
there  was  a  picturesqueness  as  well  as  moral  aptness  in 
the  name.     Ay,  says  Isaiah,  catching  at  the  old  name 


224  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

and  putting  to  it  another  which  describes  Egyptian 
helplessness  and  inactivity,  I  call  her  Raliab  Sit-still, 
Braggaii-tJiat-sitictJi-still,  Stormy-speech  Stay-at-home. 
Blustering  and  inactivity,  blustering  and  sitting  still,  that 
is  her  character ;  for  Egypt  hclpeth  in  vain  and  to  no 
purpose. 

Knowing  how'sometimes  the  fate  of  a  Government  is 
affected  by  a  happy  speech  or  epigram,  we  can  under- 
stand the  effect  of  this  cry  upon  the  politicians  of  Jeru- 
salem. But  that  he  might  impress  it  on  the  popular 
imagination  and  memory  as  well,  Isaiah  wrote  his 
epigram  on  a  tablet,  and  put  it  in  a  book.  We  must 
remind  ourselves  here  of  chap,  xx.,  and  remember 
how  it  tells  us  that  Isaiah  had  already  some  years 
before  this  endeavoured  to  impress  the  popular  imagi- 
nation with  the  folly  of  an  Egyptian  alliance,  walking 
unfrocked  and  barefoot  three  years  for  a  sign  and  a  portent 
upon  Egypt  and  upon  Ethiopia  (see  p.  199). 

So  that  already  Isaiah  had  appealed  from  politicians 
to  people  on  this  Egyptian  question,  just  as  he  appealed 
thirty  years  ago  from  court  to  market-place  on  the 
question  of  Ephraim  and  Damascus.*  It  is  another 
instance  of  that  prophetic  habit  of  his,  on  which  we 
remarked  in  expounding  chap.  viii.  ;  and  we  must 
again  emphasize  the  habit,  for  chap.  xxx.  here  svving-. 
round  upon  it.  Whatever  be  the  matter  committed  to 
him,  Isaiah  is  not  allowed  to  rest  till  he  brings  it  home 
to  the  popular  conscience ;  and  hov.'ever  much  he  may 
be  able  to  charge  national  disaster  upon  the  folly  of 
pohticians  or  the  obduracy  of  a  kir^g,  it  is  the  people 
whom  he  holds  ultimately  responsible.  To  Isaiah  a 
nation's  politics  are  not  arbitrary ;  they  are  not  dcpen- 

*  Chap.  viii.  I  (p.  1 19), 


XXX.]  POLITICS  AND  FAITH,  425 

dent  on  the  will  of  kings  or  the  management  of  parties. 
They  are  the  natural  outcome  of  the  nation's  character. 
What  the  people  are,  that  will  their  politics  be.  If  you 
wish  to  reform  the  pohtics,  you  must  first  regenerate 
the  people ;  and  it  is  no  use  to  inveigh  against  a  sense- 
less policy,  like  this  Egyptian  one,  unless  you  go  farther 
and  expose  the  national  temper  which  has  made  it 
possible.  A  people's  own  morals  have  greater  influence 
on  their  destinies  than  their  despots  or  legislators. 
Statesmen  are  what  the  State  makes  them.  No  Govern- 
ment will  attempt  a  policy  for  which  the  nation  behind 
it  has  not  a  conscience ;  and  for  the  greater  number  of 
errors  committed  by  their  rulers,  the  blame  must  be 
laid  on  the  people's  own  want  of  character  or  intelligence. 

This  is  what  Isaiah  nov/  drives  home  (xxx.  9  ff.). 
He  tracks  the  bad  politics  to  their  source  in  bad 
religion,  the  Egyptian  policy  to  its  roots  in  the  pre- 
vaihng  tempers  of  the  people.  The  Egyptian  policy 
was  doubly  stamped.  It  was  disobedience  to  the  word 
of  God ;  it  was  satisfaction  with  falsehood.  The 
statesmen  of  Judah  shut  their  ears  to  God's  spoken 
word ;  they  allowed  themselves  to  be  duped  by  the 
Egyptian  Pretence.  But  these,  says  Isaiah,  are 
precisely  the  characteristics  of  the  whole  Jewish  people. 
For  it  is  a  rebellious  people^  lying  children,  children  that 
ivill  not  hear  tJie  revelation  of  the  Lord.  It  was  these 
national  failings — the  want  of  virtues  which  are  the 
very  substance  of  a  nation :  truth  and  reverence  or 
obedience — that  had  culminated  in  the  senseless  and 
suicidal  alliance  with  Egypt.  Isaiah  fastens  on  their 
falsehood  first :  Which  say  to  the  seers,  Ye  shall  not  see, 
and  to  the  prophets,  Ye  shall  not  prophesy  unto  us  rigid 
things  ;  speak  to  us  smooth  things  :  prophesy  deceits.  No 
wonder    such    a    character    had     been    fascinated    by 

VOL.  I,  15 


lllE  BOOK  OF.  ISAIAH. 


"  Rahab "!  It  was  a  natural  Nemesis,  that  a  people 
who  desired  from  their  teachers  fair  speech  rather  than 
true  vision  should  be  betrayed  by  the  confidence  their 
statesmen  placed  in  the  Blusterer,  that  blustered  and 
sat  still.  Truth  is  what  this  people  first  require,  and 
therefore  the  revelation  of  the  Lord  will  in  the  first 
instance  be  the  revealing  of  the  truth.  Men  who  will 
strip  pretence  off  the  reaUty  of  things ;  men  who  will 
call  things  by  their  right  names,  as  Isaiah  had  set  him- 
self to  do ;  honest  satirists  and  epigrammatists — these 
are  the  bearers  of  God's  revelation.  For  it  is  one 
of  the  means  of  Divine  salvation  to  call  things  by 
their  right  names,  and  here  in  God's  revelation  also 
epigrams  have  their  place.     So  much  for  truth. 

But  reverence  is  truth's  other  self,  for  reverence  is 
simply  loyalty  to  the  supremest  truth.  And  it  is 
against  the  truth  that  the  Jews  have  chiefly  sinned. 
They  had  shut  their  eyes  to  Egypt's  real  character,  but 
that  was  a  small  sin  beside  this  :  that  they  turned 
their  backs  on  the  greatest  reality  of  all — God 
Himself.  Get  you  out  of  the  way,  they  said  to 
the  prophets,  turn  out  of  the  path;  keep  quiet  in 
our  presence  about  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  Isaiah's 
effort  rises  to  its  culmination  when  he  seeks  to 
restore  the  sense  of  this  Reality  to  his  people.  His 
spirit  is  kindled  at  the  words  the  Holy  One  of  Israel, 
and  to  the  end  of  chap.  xxxi.  leaps  up  in  a  series 
of  brilliant  and  sometimes  scorching  descriptions  of 
the  name,  the  majesty  and  the  love  of  God.  Isaiah 
is  not  content  to  have  used  his  power  of  revelation 
to  unveil  the  pohtical  truth  about  Egypt.  He  will 
make  God  Himself  visible  to  this  people.  Passionately 
does  he  proceed  to  enforce  upon  the  Jev/s  what  God 
thinks  about  their  own  condition  (vv.  I2 — 14),  then  tc 


XXX.]  POLITICS  AND  FAITH.  227 

persuade  them  to  rely  upon  Him  alone,  and  wait  for 
the  working  of  His  reasonable  laws  (vv.  15 — 18). 
Rising  higher,  he  purges  with  pity  their  eyes  to 
see  God's  very  presence,  their  ears  to  hear  His  voice, 
their  wounds  to  feel  His  touch  (vv.  19 — 26).  Then 
he  remembers  the  cloud  of  invasion  on  the  horizon, 
and  bids  them  spell,  in  its  uncouth  masses,  the  articulate 
name  of  the  Lord  (vv.  27 — 33).  And  he  closes  with 
another  series  of  figures  by  which  God's  wisdom,  and 
His  jealousy  and  His  tenderness  are  made  very  bright 
to  them  (chap.  xxxi.). 

These  brilliant  prophecies  may  not  have  been  given 
all  at  the  same  time :  each  is  complete  in  itself.  They 
do  not  all  mention  the  negotiations  with  Egypt,  but 
they  are  all  dark  with  the  shadow  of  Assyria.  Chap. 
XXX.  vv.  19 — 26  almost  seem  to  have  been  written  in  a 
time  of  actual  siege;  but  vv.  2'j — 33  represent  Assyria 
still  upon  the  horizon.  In  this,  however,  these  pas- 
sages are  fitly  strung  together :  that  they  equally  strain 
to  impress  a  blind  and  hardened  people  with  the  will, 
the  majesty  and  the  love  of  God  their  Saviour. 

I.  The  Bulging  Wall  (vv.  12 — 14). 

Starting  from  their  unwillingness  to  listen  to  the 
voice  of  the  Lord  in  their  Egyptian  policy,  Isaiah  tells 
the  people  that  if  they  refused  to  hear  His  word  for 
guidance,  they  must  now  listen  to  it  for  judgement. 
Wlicrefore  thus  saith  the  Holy  One  of  Israel:  Because 
ye  look  doivn  on  this  word,  and  trust  in  perverscness 
and  crookedness,  and  lean  thereon,  therefore  this  iniquity 
shall  be  to  you  as  a  breach  ready  to  fall,  bulgi)ig 
out  in  a  high  wall,  whose  breaking  couieth  suddeidy  at 
an  instant.  This  iniquity,  of  course,  is  the  embassy 
to  Egypt.     But   that,   as   we    have,  seen,    is   only   the 


228  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

people's  own  evil  character  comijig  to  a  head ;  and  by 
the  breaking  of  the  wall,  we  are  therefore  to  suppose 
that  the  prophet  means  the  collapse  not  only  of  this 
Egyptian  policy,  but  of  the  whole  estate  and  substance 
of  the  Jewish  people.  It  will  not  be  your  enemy  that 
will  cause  a  breach  in  the  nation,  but  your  teeming 
iniquity  shall  cause  the  breach — to  wit,  this  Egyptian 
folly.  Judah  will  burst  her  bulwarks  from  the  inside. 
You  may  build  the  strongest  form  of  government 
round  a  people,  you  may  buttress  it  with  foreigr, 
alliances,  but  these  shall  simply  prove  occasions  for  the 
internal  wickedness  to  break  forth.  Your  supposed 
buttresses  will  prove  real  breaches ;  and  of  all  your 
social  structure  there  will  not  be  left  as  much  as  will 
make  the  fragments  of  a  single  home,  not  a  sherd  big 
enough  to  carry  fire  from  the  hearth,  or  to  hold  water 
front  the  cistern. 

II.  Not  Alliances,  but  Reliance  (vv.  15 — 18). 

At  this  point,  either  Isaiah  was  stung  by  the  demands 
of  the  pohticians  for  an  alternative  to  their  restless 
Egyptian  policy  which  he  condemned,  or  more  likely 
he  rose,  unaided  by  external  influence,  on  the  prophet's 
native  instinct  to  find  some  purely  religious  ground  on 
which  to  base  his  political  advice.  The  result  is  one 
of  the  grandest  of  all  his  oracles.  For  thus  saith  the 
Lord  Jehovah,  the  Holy  One  of  Israel:  In  returning  and 
rest  shall  ye  be  saved;  in  quietness  and  in  confidence  shall 
be  your  strength  ;  and  ye  would  not.  But  ye  said,  No,  for 
upon  horses  will  we  fee  ;  wherefore  ye  shall  fee :  and  upon 
the  swijt  will  we  ride;  wherefore  swift  shall  be  they  that 
pursue  you  !  One  thousand  at  the  rebuke  of  one — at  the 
rebuke  of  five  shall  ye  fee:  till  ye  be  left  as  a  bare  pole 
on  the  top  of  a  mountain^  and  as  a  standard  on  an  hill. 


XXX.]  POLITICS  AND  FAITH,  229 

And  therefore  will  the  Lord  wait  that  He  may  he  gracious 
unto  you,  and  therefore  will  He  hold  aloof  that  He  may 
have  mercy  upon  you,  for  a  God  of  judgement  is  the 
Lord;  blessed  are  all  they  that  wait  for  Him.  The 
words  of  this  passage  are  their  own  interpretation  and 
enforcement,  all  but  one ;  and  as  this  one  is  obscure  in 
its  English  guise,  and  the  passage  really  swings  from 
it,  we  may  devote  a  paragraph  to  its  meaning. 

A  God  of  judgement  is  the  Lord  is  an  unfortunately 
ambiguous  translation.  We  must  not  take  judgement 
here  in  our  familiar  sense  of  the  word.  It  is  not  a 
sudden  deed  of  doom,  but  a  long  process  of  law.  It 
means  manner,  method,  design,  order,  system,  the  ideas, 
in  short,  which  we  sum  up  under  the  word  "  law."  Just 
as  we  say  of  a  man.  He  is  a  man  of  judgement,  and  mean 
thereby  not  that  by  office  he  is  a  doomster,  but  that  by 
character  he  is  a  man  of  discernment  and  prudence,  so 
simply  does  Isaiah  sa}^  here  that  fehovah  is  a  God  of 
judgement,  and  mean  thereby  not  that  He  is  One,  whose 
habit  is  sudden  and  awful  deeds  of  penalty  or  salvation, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  that,  having  laid  down  His  lines 
according  to  righteousness  and  established  His  laws 
in  wisdom.  He  remains  in  His  dealings  with  men 
consistent  with  these. 

Now  it  is  a  great  truth  that  the  All-mighty  and 
All-merciful  is  the  All-methodical  too ;  and  no  religion 
is  complete  in  its  creed  or  healthy  in  its  influence,  which 
does  not  insist  equally  on  all  these.  It  was  just  the  want 
of  this  third  article  of  faith  which  perverted  the  souls 
of  the  Jews  in  Isaiah's  day,  which  (as  we  have  seen 
under  Chapter  I.)  allowed  them  to  make  their  worship 
so  mechanical  and  material — for  how  could  they  have 
been  satisfied  with  mere  forms  if  they  had  but  once 
conceived  of  God  as  having  even  ordinary  intelligence  ? 


THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


— and  which  turned  their  political  life  into  such  a  mass  of 
intrigue,  conceit  and  falsehood,  for  how  could  they  have 
dared  to  suppose  that  they  would  get  their  own  way,  or 
have  been  so  sure  of  their  own  cleverness,  if  only  they  had 
had  a  glimpse  of  the  perception,  that  God,  the  Ruler  of 
the  world,  had  also  His  policy  regarding  them?  They 
believed  He  was  the  Mighty,  they  believed  He  was  the 
Merciful,  but  because  they  forgot  that  He  was  the  Wise 
and  the  Worker  by  law,  their  faith  in  His  might  too  often 
turned  into  superstitious  terror,  their  faith  in  His  mercy 
oscillated  between  the  sleepy  satisfaction  that  He  was 
an  indulgent  God  and  the  fretful  impatience  that  He 
was  an  indifferent  one.  Therefore  Isaiah  persisted 
from  first  to  last  in  this  :  that  God  worked  by  law ; 
that  He  had  His  plan  for  Judah,  as  well  as  these 
politicians  ;  and,  as  we  shall  shortly  find  him  reminding 
them  when  intoxicated  with  their  own  cleverness,  that 
He  also  is  zvise  (xxxi.  2),  Here  by  the  same  thought 
he  bids  them  be  at  peace,  and  upon  the  rushing  tides  of 
politics,  drawing  them  to  that  or  the  other  mad  venture, 
to  swing  by  this  anchor  :  that  God  has  His  own  law 
and  time  for  everything.  No  man  could  bring  the 
charge  of  fatalism  against  such  a  policy  of  quietness. 
For  it  thrilled  with  intelligent  appreciation  of  the  Divine 
method.  When  Isaiah  said,  In  returning  and  rest  shall 
ye  be  saved;  in  quietness  and  confidence  shall  be  your 
strength,  he  did  not  ask  his  restless  countrymen  to 
yield  sullenly  to  an  infinite  force  or  to  bow  in  stupidity 
beneath  the  inscrutable  will  of  an  arbitrary  despot,  but 
to  bring  their  conduct  into  harmony  with  a  reasonable 
and  gracious  plan,  which  might  be  read  in  the  historical 
events  of  the  time,  and  was  vindicated  by  the  loftiest 
religious  convictions.  Isaiah  preached  no  submission 
to    fate,    but   reverence    for  an  all-wise  Ruler,  whose 


XXX.]  POLITICS  AND  FAITH.  231 

method  was  plain  to  every  clear-sighted  observer  of 
the  fortunes  of  the  nations  of  the  w^orld,  and  whose 
purpose  could  only  be  love  and  peace  to  His  own 
people  (cf.  p.  no). 

III.  God's  Table  in  the  Midst  of  the  Enemies 
(vv.  19 — 26). 

This  patient  purpose  of  God  Isaiah  now  proceeds  to 
describe  in  its  details.  Every  line  of  his  description 
has  its  loveliness,  and  is  to  be  separately  appreciated. 
There  is  perhaps  no  fairer  prospect  from  our  prophet' «-, 
many  windows.  It  is  not  argument  nor  a  programme, 
but  a  series  of  rapid  glimpses,  struck  out  by  language, 
which  often  wants  logical  connection,  but  never  fails  to 
make  us  see. 

To  begin  with,  one  thing  is  sure  :  the  continuance  of 
the  national  existence.  Isaiah  is  true  to  his  original 
vision — the  survival  of  a  remnant.  For  a  people  in 
Zion — there  shall  be  abiding  in  Jerusalem.  So  the  brief 
essential  is  flashed  forth.  Thou  shall  surely  weep  no 
more;  surely  He  tvill  be  gracious  unto  thee  at  the  voice 
of  thy  crying ;  with  His  hearing  of  thee  He  will  answer 
thee.  Thus  much  of  general  promise  had  been  already 
given.  Now  upon  the  vagueness  of  the  Lord's  delay 
Isaiah  paints  realistic  details,  only,  hov*rever,  that  he 
may  make  more  vivid  the  real  presence  of  the  Lord. 
The  siege  shall  surely  come,  with  its  sorely  concrete 
privations,  but  the  Lord  will  be  there,  equally  distinct. 
And  though  the  Lord  give  you  the  bread  of  penury  and 
the  zvater  of  tribidation — perhaps  the  technical  name  for 
siege  rations — yet  shall  not  thy  Teacher  hide  Himself  any 
more,  but  thine  eyes  shall  ever  be  seeing  thy  Teacher ;  and 
thine  ears  shall  hear  a  word  behind  thee,  saying,  This  is 
the  way :  walk  ye  in  it,  when  ye  turn  to  the  rigid  hand  or 


232  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

when  ye  turn  to  the  left.  Real,  concrete  sorrows,  these 
are  they  that  make  the  heavenly  Teacher  real !  It  is 
linguistically  possible,  and  more  in  harmony  with  the 
rest  of  the  passage,  to  turn  teachers,  as  the  English 
version  has  it,  into  the  singular,  and  to  render  it  by 
Rcvealer.  The  word  is  an  active  participle,  "  Moreh," 
from  the  same  verb  as  the  noun  "  Torah,"  which  is  con- 
stantly translated  "Law"  in  our  version,  but  is,  in  the 
Prophets  at  least,  more  nearly  equivalent  to  "instruc- 
tion," or  to  our  modern  term  "  revelation  "  (cf.'  ver.  9). 
Looking  thus  to  the  One  Revealer,  and  hearkening  to 
the  One  Voice,  the  lying  and  rebellious  children  shall  at 
last  be  restored  to  that  capacity  for  truth  and  obedience 
the  loss  of  which  has  been  their  ruin.  Devoted  to  the 
Holy  One  of  Israel,  they  shall  scatter  their  idols  as  loath- 
some (ver.  22).  But  thereupon  a  wonder  is  to  happen. 
As  the  besieged  people,  conscious  of  the  One  Great 
Presence  in  the  midst  of  their  encompassed  city,  cast 
their  idols  through  the  gates  and  over  the  walls,  a  mar- 
vellous vision  of  space  and  light  and  fulness  of  fresh  food 
bursts  upon  their  starved  and  straitened  souls  (ver.  23). 
Promise  more  sympathetic  was  never  uttered  to  a 
besieged  and  famished  city.  Mark  that  all  down  the 
passage  there  is  no  mention  of  the  noise  or  instruments 
of  battle.  The  prophet  has  not  spoken  of  the  besiegers, 
who  they  may  be,  how  they  may  come,  nor  of  the  fashion 
of  their  war,  but  only  of  the  effects  of  the  siege  on  those 
within:  confinement,  scant  and  bitter  rations.  And  now 
he  is  almost  wholly  silent  about  the  breaking  up  of  the 
investing  army  and  the  trail  of  their  slaughter.  No 
battle  breaks  this  siege,  but  a  vision  of  openness  and 
plenty  dawns  noiselessly  over  its  famine  and  closeness. 
It  is  not  vengeance  or  blood  that  an  exhausted  and 
penitent  people   thirst  after.     But  as  they  have  been 


XXX.]  POLITICS  AND  FAITH.  23;, 

caged  in  a  fortress,  narrow,  dark  and  stony,  so  they 
thirst  for  the  sight  of  the  sower,  and  the  drop  of  the 
rain  on  the  broken,  brown  earth,  and  the  juicy  corn, 
and  the  meadow  for  their  cribbed  cattle,  and  the  noise 
of  brooks  and  waterfalls,  and  above  and  about  it  all 
fulness  of  light.  A  nd  He  shall  give  the  rain  of  thy  seed, 
that  thou  shall  sozu  the  ground  withal,  and  bread,  even  the 
increase  of  the  ground,  and  it  shall  be  juicy  and  fat;  tJiy 
cattle  shall  feed  that  day  in  a  broad  meadow.  And  the  oxen 
and  the  young  asses  that  till  the  ground  shall  eat  savoury 
provender,  zviniiowed  with  the  shovel  and  ivith  the  fan. 
And  there  shall  be  upon  every  lofty  mountain  and  upon 
every  lifted  hill  rivers,  streams  of  water,  in  the  day  of  tlic 
great  slaughter,  when  the  toivers  fall.  And  the  light  of  the 
moon  shall  be  as  the  light  of  the  sun,  and  the  light  of  the 
sim  shall  be  sevenfold,  as  the  light  of  seven  days,  in  the 
day  that  the  Lord  bindcth  up  the  hurt  of  His  people  and 
healeth  the  stroke  of  their  wound.  It  is  one  of  Isaiah's 
fairest  visions,  and  he  is  very  much  to  be  blamed  who 
forces  its  beauty  of  nature  into  an  allegory  of  spiritual 
things.  Here  literally  God  spreads  His  people  a  table 
in  the  midst  of  their  enemies. 

IV.  The  Name  of  the  Lord  (vv.  27 — 33), 

But  Isaiah  lays  down  "  the  oaten  pipe "  and  lifts 
again  a  brazen  trumpet  to  his  lips.  Between  him  and 
that  sunny  landscape  of  the  future,  of  whose  pastoral 
details  he  has  so  sweetly  sung,  roll  up  now  the  uncouth 
masses  of  the  Assyrian  invasion,  not  yet  fully  gathered, 
far  less  broken.  We  are  back  in  the  present  again, 
and  the  whole  horizon  is  clouded. 

The  passage  does  not  look  like  one  from  which 
comfort  or  edification  can  be  derived,  but  it  is  of 
extreme  interest.     The  first  two  verses,  for  instance, 


234  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 


only  require  a  little  analysis  to  open  a  most  instructive 
glimpse  into  the  prophet's  inner  thoughts  about  the 
Assyrian  progi  ess,  and  show  us  how  they  work  towards 
the  expression  of  its  full  meaning.  Behold,  the  Name  of 
Jehovah  conieth  from  afar — burning  His  anger  and  awful 
the  uplifting  smoke;  His  lips  are  full  of  ivrath,  and  His 
tongue  as  fire  that  devoitreth ;  and  His  breath  is  as  an 
overfoivittg  torrent — even  unto  the  neck  it  rcachelh—to 
shake  the  nations  in  a  sieve  of  destruction,  and  a  bridle 
that  leadeth  astray  on  the  jazvs  of  the  peoples. 

The  Name  ofjcliovah  is  the  phrase  the  prophets  use 
when  they  wish  to  tell  us  of  the  personal  presence  of 
God.  When  we  hear  a  name  cried  out,  we  understand 
immediately  that  a  person  is  there.  So  when  the 
prophet  calls,  Behold,  the  Name  of  Jehovah,  in  face  of 
the  prodigious  advance  of  Assyria,  we  understand  that 
he  has  caught  some  intuition  of  God's  presence  in 
that  uplifting  of  the  nations  of  the  north  at  the  word 
of  the  great  King  and  their  resistless  sweep  southward 
upon  Palestine.  In  that  movement  God  is  personally 
present.  The  Divine  presence  Isaiah  then  describes  in 
curiously  mingled  metaphor,  which  proves  how  gradually 
it  was  that  he  struggled  to  a  knowledge  of  its  pur- 
pose there.  First  of  all  he  describes  the  advance  of 
Assyria  as  a  thunderstorm,  heavy  clouds  and  darting, 
devouring  fire.  His  imagination  pictures  a  great  face 
of  wrath.  The  thick  curtains  of  cloud  as  they  roll 
over  one  another  suggest  the  heavy  lips,  and  the 
lightnings  the  fiery  tongue.  Then  the  figure  passes 
from  heaven  to  earth.  The  thunderstorm  has  burst,  and 
becomes  the  mountain  torrent,  which  speedily  reaches  the 
necks  of  those  who  are  caught  in  its  bed.  But  then 
the  prophet's  conscience  suggests  something  more  than 
sudden  and  sheer  force  in  this  invasion,  and  the  tossing 


X  x.]  POLITICS  AND  FAITH.  235 

of  the  torrent  naturally  leads  him  to  express  this  new 
element  in  the  figure  of  a  sieve.  His  thought  about  the 
Assyrian  flood  thus  passes  from  one  of  simple  force 
and  rush  to  one  of  judgement  and  being  v/ell  kept  in 
hand.  He  sees  its  ultimate  check  at  Jerusalem,  and  so 
his  last  figure  of  it  is  the  figure  of  a  bridle,  or  lasso, 
such  as  is  thrown  upon  the  jaws  of  a  wild  animal 
when  you  wish  to  catch  and  tame  him. 

This  gradual  progress  from  the  sense  of  sheer  wild 
force,  through  that  of  personal  wrath,  to  discipline 
and  sparing  is  very  interesting.  Vague  and  chaotic 
that  disaster  rolled  up  the  horizon  upon  Judah.  It 
Cometh  from  afar.  The  politicians  fled  from  it  to  their 
refuge  behind  the  Egyptian  Pretence.  But  Isaiah  bids 
them  face  it.  The  longer  they  look,  the  more  will  con- 
science tell  them  that  the  unavoidable  wrath  of  God  is 
in  it ;  no  blustering  Rahab  will  be  able  to  hide  them 
from  the  anger  of  the  Face  that  lowers  there.  But  let 
them  look  longer  still,  and  the  unrelieved  features  of 
destruction  will  change  to  a  hand  that  sifts  and  checks, 
the  torrent  will  become  a  sieve,  and  the  disaster  show 
itself  well  held  in  by  the  power  of  their  own  God. 

So  wildly  and  impersonally  still  do  the  storms  of 
sorrow  and  disaster  roll  up  the  horizon  on  men's  eyes, 
and  we  fly  in  vague  terror  from  them  to  our  Egyptian 
refuges.  So  still  does  conscience  tell  us  it  is  futile  to 
floe  from  the  anger  of  God,  and  we  crouch  hopeless 
beneath  the  rush  of  imaginations  of  unchecked  wrath, 
blackening  the  heavens  and  turning  every  path  of  life 
to  a  tossing  torrent.  May  it  then  be  granted  us  to 
have  some  prophet  at  our  side  to  bid  us  face  our 
disaster  once  more,  and  see  the  discipline  and  judge- 
ment of  the  Lord,  the  tossing  only  of  His  careful  sieve, 
in  the  wild  and  cruel  v.-aves  !    We  may  not  be  poets  like 


THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


Isaiah  nor  able  to  put  the  processes  of  our  faith  into  such 
splendid  metaphors  as  he,  but  faith  is  given  us  to  follow 
the  same  course  as  his  thoughts  did,  and  to  struggle 
till  she  arrives  at  the  consciousness  of  God  in  the  most 
uncouth  judgements  that  darken  her  horizon — the 
consciousness  of  God  present  not  only  to  smite,  but 
to  sift,  and  in  the  end  to  spare. 

Of  the  angel  who  led  Israel  to  the  land  of  promise, 
God  said.  My  Name  is  in  him.  Our  faith  is  not  perfect 
till  we  can,  like  Isaiah,  feel  the  same  of  the  blackest 
angel,  the  heaviest  disaster,  God  can  send  us,  and  be 
able  to  spell  it  out  articulately  :  The  Lord,  the  Lord, 
a  God  merciful  and  gracious,  long-suffering  and  abun- 
dant in  goodness  and  truth. 

For  delivery,  says  Isaiah,  shall  come  to  the  people  of 
God  in  the  crisis,  as  sudden  and  as  startling  into  song 
as  the  delivery  from  Egypt  was.  Ye  shall  have  a  song 
as  in  the  night  when  a  holy  feast  is  kept,  and  gladness 
of  heart,  as  zvhcn  one  goeth  with  a  pipe  to  come  into  the 
mountain  of  the  Lord,  to  the  Rock  of  Israel. 

After  this  interval  of  solemn  gladness,  the  storm  and 
fire  break  out  afresh,  and  rage  again  through  the  passage. 
But  their  direction  is  reversed,  and  whereas  they  had 
been  shown  rolling  up  the  horizon  as  towards  Judah, 
they  are  now  shown  rolling  down  the  horizon  in  pur- 
suit of  the  baffled  Assyrian.  The  music  of  the  verses 
is  crashing.  And  the  Lord  shall  cause  the  peal*  of  His 
voice  to  be  heard,  and  the  lighting  down  of  His  arm  to  be 
seen  in  the  fury  of  anger,  yea  flame  of  devouring  fire — 
bursting  and  torrent  and  hailstones.  For  from  the  voice 
of  the  Lord  shall  the  Assyrian  be  scattered  ivhen  He  shall 
smite  with  the  rod.  And  every  passage  of  the  rod  of  fate 
which  the  Lord  bringcih  down  upon  him  shall  be  with 
*  So  Dr.  B.  Davis,  quoted  by  Cheyne. 


XXX.]  POLITICS  AND  FAITH.  237 

tabrets  and  Jiarps,  and  in  battles  of  zvavinn-  sliall  he  be 
fought  against.  The  meaning  is  obscure,  but  palpable. 
Probably  the  verse  describes  the  ritual  of  the  sacrifice 
to  Moloch,  to  which  there  is  no  doubt  the  next 
verse  alludes.  To  sympathize  with  the  prophet's 
figure,  we  need  of  course  an  amount  of  inform- 
ation about  the  details  of  that  ritual  which  we  are 
very  far  from  possessing.  But  Isaiah's  meaning  is 
evidently  this  The  destruction  of  the  Assyrian  host 
will  be  liker  a  holocaust  than  a  battle,  like  one  of  those 
fatal  sacrifices  to  Moloch  which  are  directed  by  the 
solemn  waving  of  a  stafl^,  and  accompanied  by  the 
music,  not  of  war,  but  of  festival.  Battles  of  waving  is  a 
very  obscure  phrase,  but  the  word  translated  waving  is 
the  technical  term  for  the  waving  of  the  victim  before 
the  sacrifice  to  signify  its  dedication  to  the  deity;  "and 
these  battles  of  waving  may  perhaps  have  taken  place 
in  the  fashion  in  which  single  victims  were  thrown  from 
one  spear  to  another  till  death  ensued."*  At  all  events,  it 
is  evident  that  Isaiah  means  to  suggest  that  the  Assyrian 
dispersion  is  a  religious  act,  a  solemn  holocaust  rather 
than  one  of  this  earth's  ordinary  battles,  and  directed  by 
Jehovah  Himself  from  heaven.  This  becomes  clear 
enough  in  the  next  verse  :  For  a  Tophcth  hath  been  set 
in  order  beforeJiand ;  yea,  for  Moloch  is  it  arranged;  He 
hath  made  it  deep  and  broad;  the  pile  thereof  is  fire  and 
much  wood ;  the  breath  of  the  Lord,  like  a  torrent  of 
brimstone,  shall  kindle  it.  So  the  Assyrian  power  was 
in  the  end  to  go  up  in  flame. 

We  postpone  remarks  on  Isaiah's  sense  of  the  fierce- 
ness of  the  Divine  righteousness  till  we  reach  his  even 
finer  expression  of  it  in  chap,  xxxiii. 

*  So  Bredenkamp  in  his  recent  commentaijy  on  Isaiah. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THREE   TRUTHS  ABOUT  GOD, 
Isaiah  xxxi.   (about  702  B.C.). 

CHAP.  XXXI.,  which  forms  an  appendage  tc 
chaps,  xxix.  and  xxx.,  can  scarcely  be  reckoned 
among  the  more  important  prophecies  of  Isaiah.  It 
is  a  repetition  of  the  principles  which  the  prophet 
has  already  proclaimed  in  connection  with  the  faithless 
intrigues  of  Judah  for  an  alliance  with  Egypt,  and  it 
was  published  at  a  time  when  the  statesmen  of  Judah 
were  further  involved  in  these  intrigues,  when  events 
were  moving  faster,  and  the  prophet  had  to  speak 
with  more  hurried  words.  Truths  now  familiar  to 
us  are  expressed  in  less  powerful  language.  But 
the  chapter  has  its  own  value ;  it  is  remarkable  for 
three  very  unusual  descriptions  of  God,  which  govern 
the  following  exposition  of  it.  They  rise  in  climax, 
enforcing  three  truths  :  — that  in  the  government  of 
life  we  must  take  into  account  God's  wisdom ;  we 
must  be  prepared  to  find  many  of  His  providences 
grim  and  savage-looking ;  but  we  must  also  believe  that 
He  is  most  tender  and  jealous  for  His  people. 

I.  Yet  He  also  is  Wise  (vv.  i — 3). 

We  must   suppose    the  negotiations   with  Egypt  to 
have  taken  for  the  moment  a  favourable  turn,  and  the 


xxxi.]  THREE   TRUTHS  ABOUT  GOD.  239 

statesmen  who  advocated  them  to  be  congratulating  them- 
selves upon  some  consequent  addition  to  the  fightmg 
strength  of  Judah.  They  could  point  to  many  chariots 
and  a  strong  body  of  cavalry  in  proof  of  their  own 
wisdom  and  refutation  of  the  prophet's  maxim,  In 
quietness  and  in  confidence  shall  be  your  strength;  in 
returning  and  rest  shall  ye  be  saved. 

Isaiah  simply  answers  their  self-congratulation  with 
the  utterance  of  a  new  Woe,  and  it  is  in  this  that 
the  first  of  the  three  extraordinary  descriptions  of 
God  is  placed.  Woe  unto  them  that  go  doivn  to  Egypt 
for  help  ;  upon  horses  do  they  stay,  and  trust  in  chariots 
because  they  are  many,  and  in  Jiorsemen  because  they 
are  very  strong :  but  they  look  not  unto  the  Holy  One  of 
Israel,  and  Jehovah  they  do  not  seek.  Yet  He  also  is  ivise. 
You  have  been  clever  and  successful,  but  have  you 
forgotten  that  God  also  is  ivise,  that  He  too  has  His 
policy,  and  acts  reasonably  and  consistently  ?  You 
think  you  have  been  making  history ;  but  God  also 
works  in  history,  and  surely,  to  put  it  on  the  lowest 
ground,  with  as  much  cleverness  and  persistence  as 
you  do.  Yet  He  also  is  ivise,  and  will  bring  evil,  and 
tvill  not  call  back  His  words,  but  ivill  arise  against 
the  house  of  the  evil-doers,  and  against  the  help  of  them 
that  work  iniquity. 

This  satire  was  the  shaft  best  fitted  to  pierce  the 
folly  of  the  rulers  of -Judah.  Wisdom,  a  reasonable 
plan  for  their  aims  and  prudence  in  carrying  it  out, 
was  the  last  thing  they  thought  of  associating  with 
God,  whom  they  relegated  to  what  they  called  their 
religion — their  temples,  worship  and  poetry.  When 
their  emotions  were  stirred  by  solemn  services,  or 
under  great  disaster,  or  in  the  hour  of  death,  they 
remembered    God,     and    it    seemed    natural    to    them 


240  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


that  in  these  great  exceptions  of  life  He  should 
interfere  ;  but  in  their  politics  and  their  trade,  in 
the  common  course  and  conduct  of  life,  they  ignored 
Him  and  put  their  trust  in  their  own  wisdom.  They 
limited  God  to  the  ceremonies  and  exceptional  occa- 
sions of  life,  when  they  looked  for  His  glory  or 
miraculous  assistance,  but  they  never  thought  that  in 
their  ordinar}'  ways  He  had  any  interest  or  design. 

The  forgetfulness,  against  which  Isaiah  directs  this 
shaft  of  satire,  is  the  besetting  sin  of  very  religious 
people,  of  very  successful  people,  and  of  very  clever 
people. 

It  is  the  temptation  of  an  ordinary  Christian, 
church-going  people,  like  ourselves,  with  a  religion 
so  full  of  marvellous  mercies,  and  so  blessed  with 
regular  opportunities  of  worship,  to  think  of  God 
only  in  connection  with  these,  and  practically  to 
ignore  that  along  the  far  greater  stretches  of  life  He 
has  any  interest  or  purpose  regarding  us.  Formally- 
religious  people  treat  God  as  if  He  were  simply  a 
constitutional  sovereign,  to  step  in  at  emergencies, 
and  for  the  rest  to  play  a  nom.inal  and  cere- 
monial part  in  the  conduct  of  their  lives.  Ignoring 
the  Divine  wisdom  and  ceaseless  providence  of  God, 
and  couching  their  hearts  upon  easy  views  of  His 
benevolence,  they  have  no  other  thought  of  Him,  than 
as  a  philanthropic  magician,  whose  power  is  reserved 
to  extricate  men  when  they  have  got  past  helping 
themselves.  From  the  earliest  times  that  way  of 
regarding  God  has  been  prevalent,  and  religious 
teachers  have  never  failed  to  stigmatize  it  with  the 
hardest  name  for  folly.  Fools,  says  the  Psalmist,  are 
afflicted  tvhcn  they  draw  near  unto  the  gates  of  death  ; 
then,  only  then,  do  they  cry  unto  tne  Lord  in  thnr  trouble. 


xxxi.]  THREE   TRUTHS  ABOUT  GOD.  241 

Thou  fool!  says  Christ  of  the  man  who  kept  God 
out  of  the  account  of  his  life.  God  is  not  mocked, 
although  we  ignore  half  His  being  and  confine  our 
religion  to  such  facile  views  of  His  nature.  With 
this  sarcasm,  Isaiah  reminds  us  that  it  is  not  a  Fool 
who  is  on  the  throne  of  the  universe ;  yet  is  the  Being 
whom  the  imaginations  of  some  men  place  there  any 
better  ?  O  wise  men,  God  also  is  wise.  Not  by 
fits  and  starts  of  a  benevolence  similar  to  that  of  our 
own  foolish  and  inconsistent  hearts  does  He  work. 
Consistency,  reason  and  law  are  the  methods  of  His 
action;  and  they  apply  closely,  irretrievably,  to  all 
of  our  life.  Hath  He  promised  evil  ?  Then  evil  will 
proceed.  Let  us  believe  that  God  keeps  His  word  ; 
that  He  is  thoroughly  attentive  to  all  we  do ;  that 
His  will  concerns  the  whole  of  our  life. 

But  the  temptation  to  refuse  to  God  even  ordinary 
wisdom  is  also  the  temptation  of  very  successful  and 
very  clever  people,  such  as  these  Jewish  politicians 
fancied  themselves  to  be,  or  such  as  the  Rich  Fool  in 
the  parable.  They  have  overcome  all  they  have 
miitched  themselves  against,  and  feel  as  if  they  were 
to  be  masters  of  their  own  future.  Now  the  Bible 
and  the  testimony  of  men  invariably  declare  that 
God  has  one  way  of  meeting  such  fools— the  way 
Isaiah  suggests  here.  God  meets  them  with  their 
own  weapons ;  He  outmatches  them  in  their  own 
fashion.  In  the  eighteenth  Psalm  it  is  written,  With 
the  pure  Thou  voilt  show  Thyself  pure,  and  zvith  the 
perverse  Thou  wilt  show  Thyself  froward.  The  Rich 
Fool  congratulates  himself  that  his  soul  is  his  own  ; 
says  God,  This  night  tJiy  soul  shall  be  required  of  thee. 
The  Jewish  politicians  pride  themselves  on  their 
wisdom;     Yet    God  also   is   luise,    says    Isaiah  signifi- 

VOL.    I.  16 


242  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH 

rantly.  After  Moscow  Napoleon  is  reported  to  have 
exclaimed,  "  The  Almighty  is  too  strong  for  me." 
But  perhaps  the  most  striking  analogy  to  this  satire 
of  Isaiah  is  to  be  found  in  the  "  Confessions  "  of  that 
Jew,  from  whose  living  sepulchre  we  are  so  often 
startled  with  weird  echoes  of  the  laughter  of  the 
ancient  prophets  of  his  race.  When  Heine,  Germany's 
greatest  satirist,  lay  upon  a  bed  to  which  his  evil 
living  had  brought  him  before  his  time,  and  the  pride 
of  art,  which  had  been,  as  he  says,  his  god,  was  at 
last  crushed,  he  tells  us  what  it  was  that  crushed  him. 
They  were  singing  his  songs  in  every  street  of  his 
native  land,  and  his  fame  had  gone  out  through  the 
world,  while  he  lay  an  exile  and  paralysed  upon  his 
"  mattress- grave."  "Alas!"  he  cries,  "the  irony  of 
Heaven  weighs  heavily  upon  me.  The  great  Author 
of  the  universe,  the  celestial  Aristophanes,  wished  to 
show  me,  the  petty,  earthly,  German  Aristophanes, 
how  my  most  trenchant  satires  are  only  clumsy  patch- 
work compared  with  His,  and  how  immeasurably  He 
excels  me  in  humour  and  colossal  wit."  That  is  just 
a  soul  writing  in  its  own  heart's  blood  this  terrible 
warning  of  Isaiah  :   Yet  God  also  is  wise. 

Yea,  the  Egyptians  are  men,  and  not  God,  and  their 
horses  flc^h,  and  not  spirit;  and  ivhenJcliovaJi  sliall  strcich 
out  His  hand,  both  he  that  hrJpeih  shall  stundde,  and  lie 
that  is  ho/pen  shall  /a//,  and  they  all  shall  perish  together. 

II.  The  Lion  and  his  Prey  (ver.  4). 

But  notwithstanding  what  he  has  said  about  God 
destn^ying  men  who  trust  in  their  own  cleverness,  Isaiah 
goes  on  to  assert  that  God  is  always  ready  to  save  what 
is  worth  saving.  The  peo;)le,  the  city.  His  own  city — 
God  will  save  that.     To  express  God's  persistent  grace 


xxxi.]  THREE   TRUTHS  ABOUT  GOD.  243 

towards  Jerusalem,  Isaiah  uses  two  figures  borrowed 
from  the  beasts.  Both  of  them  are  truly  Homeric, 
and  fire  the  imagination  at  once ;  but  the  first  is  not 
one  we  should  have  expected  to  find  as  a  figure  of  the 
saving  grace  of  God.  Yet  Isaiah  knows  it  is  not 
enough  for  men  to  remember  how  wise  God  always  is. 
They  need  also  to  be  reminded  how  grim  and  cruel 
He  must  sometimes  appear,  even  in  His  saving  pro- 
vidences. 

For  thus  saitJi  Jehovah  unto  me:  Like  as  ivhen  the 
lion  groivlcth,  and  the  young  lion  over  his  prey,  if  a  mob  0/ 
shepherds  he  called  forth  against  him,  from  their  voice  he 
ivill  not  shrink  in  dismay,  nor  for  their  noise  abase  him- 
self; so  shall  Jehovah  of  hosts  come  down  to  fight  for 
Moimt  Zion  and  the  hill  thereof.  A  lion  with  a  lamb  in 
his  claws,  growling  over  it,  while  a  crowd  of  shepherds 
come  up  against  him;  afraid  to  go  near  enough  to  kill 
him,  they  try  to  frighten  him  away  by  shouting  at  him. 
But  he  holds  his  prey  unshrinking. 

It  is  a  figure  that  startles  at  first.  To  liken  God  with 
a  saving  hold  upon  His  own  to  a  wild  lion  with  his 
claws  in  the  prey  !  But  horror  plays  the  part  of  a  good 
emphasis  ;  while  if  we  look  into  the  figure,  we  shall  feel 
our  horror  change  to  appreciation.  There  is  some- 
thing majestic  in  that  picture  of  the  lion  with  the 
shouting  shcplierds,  too  afraid  to  strike  him.  lie  ivill 
not  be  dismayed  at  their  voice,  nor  abase  himself  for  the 
noise  of  them.  Is  it,  after  all,  an  unworthy  figure  of  the 
Divine  Claimant  for  this  city,  who  kept  unceasing 
hold  upon  her  after  His  own  manner,  mysterious  and 
lionlike  to  men,  undisturbed  by  the  screams,  formulas, 
and  prayers  of  her  mob  of  politicians  and  treaty- 
mongers  ?  For  these  are  the  shepherds  Isaiah  means' 
• — sham    shepherds,  the  shrieking    crew  of  politicians 


244  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

with  their  treaties  and  military  display.  God  will  save 
and  carry  Jerusalem  His  own  way,  paying  no  heed  to 
such.  He  will  not  be  dismayed  at  their  voice,  nor  abase 
Himself  for  the  noise  of  them. 

There  is  more  than  the  unyielding  persistency  o 
Divine  grace  taught  here.  There  is  that  to  begin  with. 
God  will  never  let  go  what  He  has  made  His  own  :  the 
souls  He  has  redeemed  from  sin,  the  societies  He  has 
redeemed  from  barbarism,  the  characters  He  has  hold 
of,  the  lives  He  has  laid  His  hand  upon.  Persistency 
of  saving  grace — let  us  learn  that  confidently  in  the 
parable.  But  that  is  only  half  of  what  it  is  meant  to 
teach.  Look  at  the  shepherds :  shepherds  shouting 
round  a  lion  ;  why  does  Isaiah  put  it  that  way,  and  not 
as  David  did — lions  growling  round  a  brave  shepherd, 
with  the  lamb  in  his  arms  ?  Because  it  so  appeared 
then  in  the  life  Isaiah  was  picturing,  because  it  often 
looks  the  same  in  real  life  still.  These  politicians — they 
seemed,  they  played  the  part  of,  shepherds;  and  Jehovah, 
who  persistently  frustrated  their  plans  for  the  salvation 
of  the  State — He  looked  the  lion,  delivering  Jerusalem 
to  destruction.  And  very  often  to  men  does  this 
arrangement  of  the  parts  repeat  itself;  and  while  human 
friends  are  anxious  and  energetic  about  them,  God 
Himself  appears  in  providences  more  lionlike  than 
shepherdly.  He  grasps  with  the  savage  paw  of  death 
some  one  as  dear  to  us  as  that  city  was  to  Isaiah.  He 
rends  our  body  or  soul  or  estate.  And  friends  and 
our  own  thoughts  gather  round  the  cruel  bereavement 
or  disaster  with  remonstrance  and  complaint.  Our 
hearts  cry  out,  doing,  like  shepherds,  their  best  to 
scaie  by  prayer  and  cries  the  foe  they  are  too  weak  to 
kill.  We  all  know  the  scene,  and  how  shabby  and 
mean  that  mob  of  human  remonstrances  looks  in  face  or 


xxxi.]  THREE   TRUTHS  ABOUT  GOD.  245 


the  great  Foe,  majestic  though  inarticulate,  that  with 
sullen  persistence  carries  off  its  prey.  All  we  can  say 
in  such  times  is  that  if  it  is  God  who  is  the  lion,  then  it 
"s  for  the  best.  For  though  He  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust 
Him  ;  and,  after  all,  it  is  safer  to  rely  on  the  mercies  of 
God,  honlike  though  they  be,  than  on  the  weak  benevo- 
lences and  officious  pities  of  the  best  of  human  advisers. 
"  Thy  will  be  done  " — let  perfect  reverence  teach  us  to 
feel  that,  even  when  providence  seems  as  savage  as  men 
that  day  thought  God's  will  towards  Jerusalem. 

In  addition  then  to  remembering,  when  men  seem  by 
their  cleverness  and  success  to  rule  life,  that  God  is 
wiser  and  His  plans  more  powerful  than  theirs,  we 
are  not  to  forget,  when  men  seem  more  anxious  and 
merciful  than  His  dark  providence,  that  for  all  their 
argument  and  action  His  will  shall  not  alter.  But  now 
we  are  to  hear  that  this  will,  so  hard  and  mysterious, 
is  as  merciful  and  tender  as  a  mother's. 

III.  The  Mother-bird  and  her  Nest  (ver.  5)' 

As  birds  hovering,  so  will  Jehovah  of  hosts  cover 
Jerusalem  ;  He  will  cover  and  deliver  it :  He  zvill  pass 
over  and  preserve  it.  At  last  we  are  through  dark 
providence,  to  the  very  heart  of  the  Almighty.  The 
meaning  is  familiar  from  its  natural  simplicity  and 
frequent  use  in  Scripture.  Two  features  of  it  our 
version  has  not  reproduced.  The  word  birds  means 
the  smaller  kind  of  feathered  creatures,  and  the  word 
hovering  is  feminine  in  the  original  :  As  little  mother- 
birds  hovering,  so  will  Jehovah  of  hosts  protect  Jerusalem. 
We  have  been  watching  in  spring  the  hedge  where  we 
know  is  a  nest.  Suddenly  the  mother-bird,  who  has 
been  sitting  on  a  branch  close  by,  flutters  off  her  perch, 
passes  backwards  and  forwards,  with  flapping   wings 


246  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


that  droop  nervously  towards  the  nest  over  her  young, 
A  hawk  is  in  the  sky,  and  till  he  disappears  she  will 
hover — the  incarnation  of  motherly  anxiety.  This  is 
Isaiah's  figure.  His  native  city,  on  which  he  poured  so 
much  of  his  heart  in  lyrics  and  parables,  was  again  in 
danger.  Sennacherib  was  descending  upon  her ;  and 
the  pity  of  Isaiah's  own  heart  for  her,  evil  though  she 
was,  suggested  to  him  a  motherhood  of  pity  in  the 
breast  of  God.  The  suggestion  God  Himself  approved. 
Centuries  after,  when  He  assumed  our  flesh  and  spoke 
our  language,  when  He  put  His  love  into  parables  lowly 
and  familiar  to  our  affections,  there  were  none  of  them 
more  beautiful  than  that  which  He  uttered  of  this  same 
city,  weeping  as  He  spake  :  O  Jenisalciu,  Jerusalem, 
how  often  would  I  have  gaihercd  thy  children  togelher, 
as  a  hen  gathereth  her  brood  under  her  wings,  a)id  ye 
would  not! 

With  such  fountains  in  Scripture,  we  need  not,  as 
some  have  done,  exalt  the  Virgin,  or  virtually  make  a 
fourth  person  in  the  Godhead,  and  that  a  woman,  in 
order  to  satisfy  those  natural  longings  of  the  heart 
which  the  widespread  worship  of  the  mother  of  Jesus 
tells  us  are  so  peremptory.  For  all  fulness  dwelleth  in 
God  Himself.  Not  only  may  we  rejoice  in  that  pity  and 
wise  provision  for  our  wants,  in  that  pardon  and  gene- 
rosity, which  we  associate  with  the  name  of  father,  but 
also  in  the  wakefulness,  the  patience,  the  love,  lovelier 
with  fear,  which  make  a  mother's  heart  so  dear  and 
indispensable.  V/e  cannot  tell  along  what  wakened 
nerve  the  grace  of  God  may  reach  our  hearts ;  but 
Scripture  has  a  medicine  for  every  pain.  And  if  any 
feel  their  weakness  as  little  children  feel  it,  let  them 
know  that  the  Spirit  of  God  broods  over  them,  as  a 
mother  over  her  babe ;  and  if  any  are  in  pain  or  anxiety, 


xxxi.]  THREE   TRUTHS  ABOUT  GOD.  247 

and  there  is  no  human  heart  to  suffer  with  them,  let 
them  know  that  as  closely  as  a  mother  may  come  to 
suffer  with  her  child,  and  as  sensitive  as  she  is  to  its 
daViger,  so  sensitive  is  God  Almighty  to  theirs,  and 
that  He  gives  them  proof  of  their  preciousness  to 
Him  by  suffering  with  them. 

How  these  three  descriptions  meet  the  three  faihngs 
of  our  faith  !  We  forget  that  God  is  ceaselessly  at 
work  in  wisdom  in  our  lives.  We  forget  that  God 
must  sometimes,  even  when  He  is  saving  us,  seem 
lionlike  and  cruel.  We  forget  that  "  the  heart  of  the 
Eternal  is  most  wonderfully  kind." 

Having  thus  made  vivid  the  presence  of  their  Lord 
to  the  purged  eyes  of  His  people,  patient,  powerful 
in  order,  wdse  in  counsel,  persistent  in  grace,  and, 
last  of  all,  very  tender,  Isaiah  concludes  with  a  cry 
to  the  people  to  turn  to  this  Lord,  from  whom  tli^y 
have  so  deeply  revolted.  Let  them  cast  away  their 
idols,  and  there  shall  be  no  fear  of  the  result  of  the 
Assyrian  invasion.  The  Assyrian  shall  fall,  not  by  tiie 
sword  of  man,  but  the  immediate  stroke  of  God.  Aiid 
his  rock  shall  pass  away  by  reason  of  terror,  and  his 
princes  shall  be  dismayed  at  the  ensign,  saitli  ilie  Lord, 
whose  fire  is  in  Zion,  and  His  furnace  in  Jerusalem.  And 
so  Isaiali  closes  this  series  of  prophecies  on  the  keynote 
with  which  it  opened  in  the  first  verse  of  chap.  xxix. : 
that  Jerusalem  is  Ariel — the  hearth  and  altar,  the  dwelling" 
place  and  sanctuary,  of  God. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

A  MAN :   CHARACTER  AND   THE  CAPACITY  TO 

DISCRIMINA  TE  CHAR  A  CTER. 

Isaiah  xxxii.  i — 8  (about  702  b.c.  ?). 

THE  Assyrians  being  tlius  disposed  of,  Isaiah  turns 
to  a  prospect,  on  which  we  have  scarcely  heard 
him  speak  these  twenty  years,  since  Assyria  appeared 
on  the  frontier  of  Judah — tlie  rehgious  future  and 
social  progress  of  his  own  people.  This  he  paints  in 
a  small  prophecy  of  eight  verses,  the  first  eight  of 
chap,  xxxii. — verses  9 — 20  of  that  chapter  apparently 
springing  from  somewhat  different  conditions. 

The  first  eight  verses  of  chap,  xxxii.  belong  to  a  class 
of  prophecies  which  we  may  call  Isaiah's  "'escapes." 
Like  St.  Paul,  Isaiah,  when  he  has  finished  some 
exposition  of  God's  dealings  with  His  people  or 
argument  with  the  sinners  among  them,  bursts  upon 
an  unencumbered  vision  of  the  future,  and  with  roused 
conscience,  and  voice  resonant  from  long  debate,  takes 
his  loftiest  flights  of  eloquence.  In  Isaiah's  book  we 
have  several  of  these  visions,  and  each  bears  a 
character  of  its  own  according  to  the  sort  of  sinners 
from  whom  the  prophet  shook  himself  loose  to  describe 
it  and  the  kind  of  indignation  that  filled  his  heart  at 
the  time.  We  have  already  seen,  how  in  some  of 
I?aiah's  visions  the  Messiah  has  the  chief  place,  while 


xxxii.  1—8.]  A   MAN.  249 

from  others  He  is  altogether  absent.  But  here  we 
come  upon  another  mconsistency.  Sometimes,  as  in 
chap,  xi.,  Isaiah  is  content  with  nothing  but  a  new 
dispensation — the  entire  transformation  of  nature,  when 
there  shall  be  no  more  desert  or  storm,  but  to  the  wild 
animals  docility  shall  come,  and  among  men  an  end 
to  sorrow,  fraud  and  war.  But  again  he  limits  his  pro- 
phetic soul  and  promises  less.  As  if,  overcome  by  the 
spectacle  of  the  more  clamant  needs  and  horrible  vices 
of  society,  he  had  said,  we  must  first  get  rid  of  these, 
we  must  supply  those,  before  we  can  begin  to  dream 
of  heaven.  Such  is  Isaiah's  feeling  here.  This  pro- 
phecy is  not  a  vision  of  society  glorified,  but  of  society 
established  and  reformed,  with  its  foundation  firmly 
settled  (ver.  i),  with  its  fountain  forces  in  full  operation 
(ver.  2),  and  with  an  absolute  check  laid  upon  its  worst 
habits,  as,  for  instance,  the  moral  grossness,  lying 
and  pretence  which  the  prophet  has  been  denouncing 
for  several  chapters  (vv.  3 — 8).  This  moderation  of 
the  prophecy  brings  it  within  the  range  of  practical 
morals ;  while  the  humanity  of  it,  its  freedom  from 
Jewish  or  Oriental  peculiarities,  renders  it  thoroughly 
modern.  If  every  unfulfilled  prophecy  ought  to  be 
an  accusing  conscience  in  the  breast  of  the  Christian 
Church,  there  will  be  none  more  clamant  and  practical 
than  this  one.  Its  demands  are  essential  to  the  social 
interests  of  to-day. 

In  ver.  i  we  have  the  presupposition  of  the  whole 
prophecy  :  Behold,  in  righteousness  shall  a  king  reign, 
and  princes — according  to  justice  shall  they  rule.  A  just 
government  is  always  the  basis  of  Isaiah's  vision  of  the 
future.  Here  he  defines  it  with  greater  abstractness 
than  he  has  been  wont  to  do.  It  is  remarkable,  that 
a  writer,   whose  pen  has  already  described   the  figure 


THE  BOOK  Ot   ISAIAH. 


of  the  coming  King  so  concretely  and  with  so  much 
detail,  should  here  content  himself  with  a  general 
promise  of  a  righteous  government,  regarding,  as  he 
seems  to  do,  rather  the  office  of  kinghood,  than  any 
single  eminent  occupier  of  it.  That  the  prophet  of 
Immanuel,  and  still  more  the  prophet  of  tlie  Prince- 
of-the-Four-Names  (chap,  ix.  7),  and  of  the  Son  of 
Jesse  (chap.  xi.  l),  should  be  able  to  paint  the  ideal 
future,  and  speak  of  the  just  government  that  was  to 
prevail  in  it,  without  at  the  same  time  referring  to  his 
previous  very  explicit  promises  of  a  royal  Individual, 
is  a  fact  which  we  cannot  overlook  in  sup{)ort  of  the 
opinion  we  have  expressed  on  pp.  180  and  181  con- 
cerning the  object  of  Isaiah's  Mtssianic  hopes. 

Nor  is  the  vagueness  of  the  first  verse  corrected  by 
the  terms  of  the  second  :  And  a  man  shall  be  as  an 
hiding-place  from  the  windy  etc.  We  have  already 
spoken  of  this  verse  as  an  ethical  advance  upon 
Isaiah's  previous  picture  of  the  Messiah  (see  p.  182). 
But  while,  of  course,  the  Messiah  was  to  Isaiah  the 
ideal  of  human  character,  and  therefore  shared  what- 
soever features  he  might  foresee  in  its  perfect  develop- 
mnt,  it  is  evident  that  in  this  verse  Isaiah  is  not 
thinking  of  the  Messiah  alone  or  particularly.  When 
he  says  with  such  simplicity  a  man,  he  means  any  man, 
he  means  the  ideal  for  every  man.  Having  in  ver.  i 
laid  down  the  foundation  for  social  life,  he  tells  us  in 
ver.  2  what  the  shelter  and  fountain  force  of  society 
are  to  be :  not  science  nor  material  wealth,  but  personal 
influence,  the  strength  and  freshness  of  the  human 
personality.  A  man  shall  be  as  an  hiding-place  from  the 
wind  and  a  covert  from  the  tempest,  as  rivers  of  water 
in  a  dry  place,  as  the  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  ^ 
land.     After  just  government  (ver,  l)  great  characters 


x.xKii.  1—8.]  A    MAN.  251 

are  the  prophet's  first  demand  (ver.  2),  and  then 
(vv.  3 — 8)  lie  will  ask  for  the  capacity  to  discriminate 
character.  "  Character  and  the  capacity  to  discriminate 
character  "  indeed  summarizes  this  prophecy. 

I.  A  Man  (ver.  2). 

Isaiah  has  described  personal  influence  on  so  grand 
a  scale  that  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  Church  has 
leapt  to  his  words  as  a  direct  prophecy  of  Jesus  Christ. 
They  are  indeed  a  description  of  Mini,  out  of  whose 
shadow  advancing  time  has  not  been  able  to  carry  the 
children  of  men,  who  has  been  the  shelter  and  fertihty 
of  every  generation  since  He  was  lifted  up,  and  to 
whom  the  affections  of  individual  hearts  never  rise 
higher  than  when  they  sing — 

"  Rock  of  ages,  cleft  for  me, 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  Thee." 

Such  a  rock  was  Christ  indeed ;  but,  in  accordance 
with  what  we  have  said  above,  the  prophet  here  has 
no  individual  specially  in  his  view,  but  is  rather  laying 
down  a  general  description  of  the  influence  of  indivi- 
dual character,  of  which  Christ  Jesus  was  die  highest 
instance.  Taken  in  this  sense,  his  famous  words 
present  us,  first,  with  a  philosophy  of  history,  at  the 
heart  of  which  there  is,  secondly,  a  great  gospel,  and 
in  the  application  of  which  there  is,  thirdly,  a  great 
ideal  and  duty  for  ourselves. 

I.  Isaiah  gives  us  in  this  verse  a  Philosophy  of 
History.  Great  men  are  not  the  whole  of  life,  but 
they  are  the  condition  of  all  the  rest ;  if  it  were  not 
for  the  big  men,  the  little  ones  could  scarcely  live. 
The  first  requisites  of  religion  and  civilisation  are 
outstanding  characters. 


252  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

In  the  East  the  following  phenomenon  is  often 
observed.  Where  the  desert  touches  a  river-valley 
or  oasis,  the  sand  is  in  a  continual  state  of  drift  from 
the  wind,  and  it  is  this  drift  which  is  the  real  cause 
of  the  barrenness  of  such  portions  of  the  desert  at 
least  as  abut  upon  the  fertile  land.  For  under  the 
rain,  or  by  infiltration  of  the  river,  plants  often  spring 
up  through  the  'Sand,  and  there  is  sometimes  promise 
of  considerable  fertility.  It  never  lasts.  Down  comes 
the  periodic  drift,  and  life  is  stunted  or  choked  out. 
But  set  down  a  rock  on  the  sand,  and  see  the  difference 
its  presence  makes.  After  a  few  showers,  to  the  lee- 
ward side  of  this  some  blades  will  spring  up ;  if  you 
have  patience,  you  will  see  in  time  a  garden.  How  has 
the  boulder  produced  this  ?  Simply  by  arresting  the 
drift. 

Now  that  is  exactly  how  great  men  benefit  human 
life.  A  great  man  serves  his  generation,  serves  the 
whole  race,  by  arresting  the  drift.  Deadly  forces, 
blind  and  fatal  as  the  desert  wind,  sweep  down  human 
history.  In  the  beginning  it  was  the  dread  of  Nature, 
the  cold  blast  which  blows  from  every  quarter  on  the 
barbarian,  and  might  have  stunted  men  to  animals. 
But  into  some  soul  God  breathed  a  great  breath  of 
freedom,  and  the  man  defied  Nature.  Nature  has  had 
her  revenge  by  burying  the  rebel  in  oblivion.  On  the 
distant  horizon  of  history  we  can  see,  merely  in  some 
old  legend,  the  evidence  of  his  audacity.  But  the  drift 
was  arrested ;  behind  the  event  men  took  shelter,  in 
the  shelter  grew  free,  and  learned  to  think  out  what 
the  first  great  resister  felt. 

When  history  had  left  this  rock  behind,  and  the  drift 
had  again  space  to  grow,  the  same  thing  happened ;  and 
the  hero  this  time  was  Abraham.     He  laid  his  back  to 


xxxii.  I — 8.]  A   MAN.  253 

the  practice  of  his  forefathers,  and  lifting  his  brow  to 
heaven,  was  the  first  to  worship  the  One  Unseen  God. 
Abraham  beheved ;  and  in  the  shadow  of  his  faith,  and 
sheltered  by  his  example,  his  descendants  learned  to 
believe  too.  To-day  from  within  the  three  great 
spiritual  religions  men  look  back  to  him  as  the  father 
of  the  faithful. 

'When  Isaiah,  while  all  his  countrymen  were  rushing 
down  the  mad,  steep  ways  of  politics,  carried  off  by  the 
only  powers  that  were  as  yet  known  in  these  ways, 
fear  of  death  and  greed  to  be  on  the  side  of  the  strongest 
— when  Isaiah  stood  still  amid  that  panic  rush,  and 
uttered  the  memorable  words,  In  quietness  and  in  confi- 
dence shall  be  your  strength;  in  returning  and  rest  shall  ye 
be  saved,  he  stopped  one  of  the  most  dangerous  drifts  in 
history,  and  created  in  its  despite  a  shelter  for  those 
spiritual  graces,  which  have  always  been  the  beauty  of 
the  State,  and  are  now  coming  to  be  recognized  as  its 
strength. 

When,  in  the  early  critical  days  of  the  Church,  that 
dark  drift  of  Jewish  custom,  which  had  overflown  the 
barriers  set  to  the  old  dispensation,  threatened  to  spread 
its  barrenness  upon  the  fields  of  the  Gentile  world, 
already  white  to  the  harvest  of  Christ,  and  Peter  and 
Barnabas  and  all  the  Apostles  were  carried  away  by  it, 
what  Vv  as  it  that  saved  Christianity  ?  Under  God,  it 
was  this  :  that  Paul  got  up  and,  as  he  tells  us,  withstood 
Peter  to  the  face. 

And,  again,  when  the  powers  of  the  Roman  Church 
and  the  Roman  Empire,  checked  for  a  little  by  the 
efforts  which  began  the  Reformation,  gathered  them- 
selves together  and  rose  in  one  awful  front  of  emperor, 
cardinals,  and  princes  at  the  Diet  of  Worms,  what  was 
it  that  stood  fast  against  that  drift  of  centuries,  and 


25^  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

proved  the  rock,  under  whose  shelter  men  dared  to 
read  God's  pure  word  again,  and  preach  His  Gospel  ? 
It  was  the  word  of  a  lonely  monk  :  "  Here  stand  I.  I 
cannot  otherwise.     So  help  me,  God." 

So  that  Isaiah  is  right.  A  single  man  has  been  as  an 
hiding-place  from  the  zvmd  and  a  covert  from  tJie  tempest. 
History  is  swept  by  drifts  :  superstition,  error,  poisonous 
custom,  dust-laden  controversy.  What  has  saved 
humanity  has  been  the  upraising  of  some  great  man  to 
resist  those  drifts,  to  set  his  will,  strong  through  faith, 
against  the  prevailing  tendency,  and  be  the  shelter  of 
the  weaker,  but  not  less  desirous,  souls  of  his  brethren. 
"The  history  of  what  man  has  accomplished  in  the 
world ,  is  at  bottom  the  history  of  the  great  men  who 
have  worked  there."  Under  God,  personal  human  power 
is  the  highest  force,  and  God  has  ever  used  it  as  His 
chief  instrument. 

2.  But  in  this  philosophy  of  history  there  is  a 
GOSPEL.  Isaiah's  words  are  not  only  man's  ideal ; 
they  are  God's  promise,  and  that  promise  has  been 
fulfilled  in  Jesus  Christ.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  most 
conspicuous  example — none  others  are  near  Him — 
of  this  personal  influence  in  which  Isaiah  places  all 
the  shelter  and  revival  of  society.  God  has  set  His 
seal  to  the  truth,  that  the  greatest  power  in  shaping 
human  destiny  is  man  himself,  by  becoming  one  with" 
man,  by  using  a  human  soul  to  be  the  Saviour  of  the 
race.  A  man,  says  Isaiah,  shall  be  as  an  hiding-place 
from  the  wind,  as  the  shadoiv  of  a  great  rock  in  a 
weary  laud;  and  the  Rock  of  ages  was  a  Man.  The 
world  indeed  knew  that  personal  character  could  go 
higher  than  all  else  in  the  world,  but  they  never  knew 
how  high  till  they  saw  Jesus  Christ,  or  how  often  till 
they  numbered  His  followers. 


xxxii.  1—8.]  A   MAN.  255 

This  figure  of  a  rock,  a  rock  resisting  drift,  gives 
us  some  idea,  not  only  of  the  commanding  influence  of 
Christ's  person,  but  of  that  special  office  from  which  all 
the  glory  of  His  person  and  of  His  name  arises :  that 
He  saves  His  people  from  their  sins. 

For  what  is  sin  ?  Sin  is  simply  the  longest,  heaviest 
drift  in  human  history.  It  arose  in  the  beginning,  and 
has  carried  everything  before  it  since.  "  The  oldest 
custom  of  the  race,"  it  is  the  most  powerful  habit  of 
the  individual.  Men  have  reared  against  it  government, 
education,  philosophy,  system  after  system  of  religion. 
But  sin  overwhelmed  them  all. 

Only  Christ  resisted,  and  His  resistance  saves  the 
world.  Alone  among  human  lives  presented  .  to  our 
view,  that  of  Christ  is  sinless.  What  is  so  prevalent  in 
human  nature  that  w^e  cannot  think  of  a  human  indi- 
vidual without  it  never  stained  Christ's  life.  Sin  was 
about  Him ;  it  was  not  that  He  belonged  to  another 
sphere  of  things  which  lay  above  it.  Sin  was  about 
Him.  He  rose  from  its  midst  with  the  same  frailty  as 
other  men,  encompassed  by  the  same  temptations ; 
but  where  they  rose  to  fall,  He  rose  to  stand,  and 
standing,  became  the  world's  Saviour.  The  great 
tradition  was  broken  ;  the  drift  was  arrested.  Sin  never 
could  be  the  same  again  after  the  sinless  manhood  of 
Christ.  The  old  world's  sins  and  cruel  customs  were 
chut  out  from  the  world  that  came  after.  Some  of 
them  ceased  so  absolutely  as  scarcely  to  be  after- 
wards named ;  and  the  rest  were  so  curbed  that  no 
civilised  society  suffered  them  to  pass  from  its  con- 
straint, and  no  public  conscience  tolerated  them  as 
natural  or  necessary  evils. 

What  the  surface  of  the  world's  life  bears  so  deeply, 
that  does  every  indivithial,  who  puts  his  trust  in  Jesus, 


256  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

feci  to  the  core.  Of  Jesus  the  believer  can  truly  say 
that  life  on  this  side  of  Him  is  very  different  from  life 
1  on  tliot.  Temptations  keep  far  away  from  the  heart  that 
I  keeps  near  to  Christ.  Under  the  shadow  of  our  Rock, 
for  us  the  evil  of  the  present  loses  all  its  suggestiveness, 
tlie  evil  of  the  past  its  awful  surge  of  habit  and  guilty 
fear, 

3.  But  there  is  not  only  a  philosophy  of  history 
and  a  gospel  in  this  promise  of  a  man.  There  is  a 
great  duty  and  ideal  for  every  one.  If  this  prophecy 
distinctly  reaches  forward  to  Jesus  Christ  as  its  only 
perfect  fulfilment,  the  vagueness  of  its  expression 
permits  of  its  application  to  all,  and  through  Him  its 
fulfilment  by  all  becomes  a  possibility.  Now  each  of 
us  may  be  a  rock,  a  shelter  and  a  source  of  fertility  to 
the  life  around  him  in  three  modes  of  constant  influence. 
We  can  be  like  Christ,  the  Rock,  in  shutting  out  from  our 
neighbours  the  knowledge  and  infection  of  sin,  m  keep- 
ing our  conversation  so  unsuggestive  and  unprovocative 
of  evil,  that,  though  sin  drift  upon  us,  it  shall  never  drift 
through  us.  And  we  may  be  like  Christ,  the  Rock,  in 
shutting  out  blame  from  other  men  ;  in  sheltering  them 
from  the  east  wind  of  pitiless  prejudice,  quarrel  or  con- 
troversy ;  in  stopping  the  unclean  and  bitter  drifts  of 
scandal  and  gossip.  How  m.any  lives  have  lost  their 
fertility  for  the  want  of  a  little  silence  and  a  little 
shadow  !  Some  righteous  people  have  a  terribly  north- 
eastern exposure ;  children  do  not  play  about  their 
doors,  nor  the  prodigal  stop  there.  And  again,  as 
there  are  a  number  of  men  and  women  who  fall  in 
struggling  for  virtue  simply  because  they  never  see  i^ 
succes.'^jful  in  others,  and  the  spectacle  of  one  pure, 
heroic  character  would  be  their  salvation,  here  is  another 
way  in  which  each  servant  of  Gcd  may  be  a  rock.     Of 


xxxii.  1-8.]  A   MAN  257 

the  late  Clerk  Maxwell  it  was  said,  "  He  made  faith 
in  goodness  easy  to  other  men."  A  man  shall  be  as 
streams  of  ivater  in  a  desert  place. 

\\.  Capacity  to  Distinguish  Character  (vv.  3 — 8). 

But  after  the  coming  of  this  ideal,  it  is  not  paradise 
that  is  regained.  Paradise  is  farther  off.  We  must 
have  truth  to  begin  with  :  truth  and  the  capacity 
to  discriminate  character.  The  sternness  with  which 
Isaiah  thus  postpones  his  earlier  vision  shows  us  how 
sore  his  heart  was  about  the  lying  temper  of  his  people. 
We  have  heard  him  deploring  the  fascination  of  their 
false  minds  by  the  Egyptian  Pretence.  Their  falseness, 
however,  had  not  only  shown  itself  in  their  foreign  poli- 
tics, but  in  their  treatment  of  one  another,  in  their  social 
fashions,  judgements  and  worships.  In  society  there 
prevailed  a  want  of  moral  insight  and  of  moral  courage. 
At  home  also  the  Jews  had  failed  to  call  things  by  their 
right  names  (cf.  p.  226).  Therefore  next  in  their  future 
Isaiah  desires  the  cure  of  moral  blindness,  haste  and 
cowardice  (vv.  3,  4),  with  the  explosion  of  all  social 
lies  (ver.  5).  Men  shall  stand  out  for  what  they  are, 
whether  they  be  bad — for  the  bad  shall  not  be  wanting 
(vv.  6,  7) — or  good  (ver.  8).  On  righteous  government 
(ver.  i)  and  influence  of  strong  men  (ver.  2)  must  follow 
social  truthfulness  (vv.  3 — 8).  Such  is  the  line  of 
the  prophet's  demands.  The  details  of  vv.  3 — 8  are 
exceedingly  interesting. 

And  not  closed  shall  be  the  eyes  of  them  that  see,  ajid 
the  ears  of  them  that  hear  shall  be  pricked  up.  The  con- 
text makes  it  clear  that  this  is  spoken,  not  of  intellectual, 
but  of  moral,  insight  and  alertness.  And  the  heart  of 
the  hasty  shall  learn  how  to  know,  and  the  tongue  of  the 
stammerer  be  quick  (the  verb  is  the  same  as  the  hasty  of 

17 


258  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


the  previous  clause)  to  speak  plain  tilings.  Startltnqly 
plain  things — for  the  word  Hterally  means  blinding-ivhite, 
and  is  so  used  of  the  sun — startlingly  plain,  like  that 
scorching  epigram  upon  Egypt.  The  morally  rash  and 
the  morally  timid  are  equal  fathers  of  lies. 

In  illustration  Isaiah  takes  the  conventional  abuse  of 
certain  moral  terms,  exposes  it  and  declares  it  shall 
cease  :  The  vile  person  sliall  no  more  he  called  liberal ,  nor 
the  churl  said  to  he  hountiful.  Liberal  and  bountiful  were 
conventional  names.  The  Hebrew  word  for  libera 
originally  meant  exactly  that — open-hearted,  generous, 
magnanimous.  In  the  East  it  is  the  character  which 
above  all  they  call  princely.  So  like  our  words 
"noble"  and  "nobility,"  it  became  a  term  of  rank, 
lord  or  prince,  and  was  often  applied  to  men  who  were 
not  at  all  great-hearted,  but  the  very  opposite — even  to 
the  vile  person.  Vile  person  is  literally  the  faded  or  the 
exhausted,  whether  mentally  or  morally — the  last  kind  of 
character  that  could  be  princely.  The  other  conventional 
term  used  by  Isaiah  refers  to  wealth  rather  than  rank. 
The  Hebrew  for  Z'o//;^/'//}// literally  means  abundant,  a  man 
blessed  with  plenty,  and  is  used  in  the  Old  Testament 
both  for  the  rich  and  the  fortunate.  Its  nearest  English 
equivalent  is  perhaps  the  successful  man.  To  this  Isaiah 
fitly  opposes  a  name,  wrongly  rendered  in  our  version 
churl,  but  corrected  in  the  margin  to  crafty — the  fraitdu' 
lent,  the  knave.  When  moral  discrimination  cones,  says 
Isaiah,  men  will  not  apply  the  term  princely  to  worn-out 
characters,  nor  grant  them  the  social  respect  implied  by 
the  term.  They  will  not  call  Xhe  fraudulent  Xhe  fortunate, 
nor  canonise  him  as  successful,  who  has  gotten  his  wealth 
by  underhand  means.  The  worthless  character  shall  no 
more  be  called  princely,  nor  the  knave  hailed  as  the  success- 
ful.    But  men's  characters  shall  stand  out  true  in  their 


xxxii.  1—8.]  A   MAN.  259 

actions,  and  by  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them.  In 
those  magic  days  the  heart  shall  come  to  the  lips,  and 
its  effects  be  unmistakeable.  For  the  worthless  per- 
son, worthlessness  shall  he  speak — what  else  can  he  ? — 
and  his  heart  shall  do  iniquity,  to  practise  projaneness 
nnd  to  tetter  against  the  Lord  rank  error,  to  make  empty 
the  sold  of  the  hungry,  and  he  iv ill  cause  the  drink  of  the 
thirsty  to  fail.  The  tools,  too,  of  the  knave  (a  play  upon 
words  here — "Keli  Kelav,"  the  knave  his  knives)  are  evil; 
he  !  loiv  tricks  he  deviseth  to  destroy  the  poor  with  words 
of  falsehood,  even  when  the  poor  speaks  justice  (that  is, 
has  justice  as  well  as  poverty  to  plead  for  him).  But 
the  princely  princely  things  deviseth,  and  he  upon  princely 
tilings  shall  stand —  not  upon  conventional  titles  or 
rank,  or  the  respect  of  insincere  hearts,  but  upon 
actual  deeds  of  generosity  and  sacrifice. 

After  great  characters,  then,  what  society  needs  is 
capacity  to  discern  character,  and  the  chief  obstacle 
in  the  way  of  this  discernment  is  the  substitution  of  a 
conventional  morality  for  a  true  morality,  and  of  some 
distinctions  of  man's  making  for  the  eternal  difference 
which  God  has  set  between  right  and  wrong. 

Human  progress  consists,  according  to  Isaiah,  of 
getting  rid  of  these  conxentions;  and  in  this  history 
bears  him  out.  The  abolition  of  slavery,  the  recognition 
of  the  essential  nobility  of  labour,  the  abolition  of  in- 
fanticide, the  emancipation  of  woman — all  these  are  due 
to  the  release  of  men's  minds  from  purely  conventional 
notions,  and  tl:e  courageous  application  in  their  place 
of  the  fundamental  laws  of  righteousness  and  love.  If 
progress  is  still  to  continue,  it  must  be  by  the  same 
method.  In  man}^  directions  it  is  still  a  false  conven- 
tionalism,— sometimes  the  relic  of  barbarism,  sometimes 
the    fruit   of  ci\ilisation, — that  blocks  the  way.     The 


26o  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


savage  notions  which  obstruct  the  enforcement  o^ 
masculine  purity  have  to  be  exposed.  Nor  shall  we  ever 
get  true  commercial  prosperity,  or  the  sense  of  security 
which  is  indispensable  to  that,  till  men  begin  to  cease 
calling  transactions  all  right  merely  because  they  are 
the  custom  of  the  trade  and  the  means  to  which  its 
members  look  for  profits. 

But,  above  all,  as  Isaiah  tells  us,  we  need  to  look 
to  our  use  of  language.  It  is  one  of  the  standing 
necessities  of  pure  science  to  revise  the  terminolog}'',  to 
reserve  for  each  object  a  special  name,  and  see  that  all 
men  understand  the  same  object  by  the  same  name. 
Otherwise  confusion  comes  in,  and  science  is  impossible. 
The  necessity,  though  not  so  faithfully  recognized, 
is  as  imperative  in  morals.  If  we  consider  the  dis- 
graceful mistakes  in  popular  morals  which  have  been 
produced  by  the  transference  and  degradation  of  names, 
we  shall  feel  it  to  be  a  religious  duty  to  preserve 
for  these  their  proper  meaning.  In  the  interests  of 
morality,  we  must  not  be  careless  in  our  use  of  moral 
terms.  As  Socrates  says  in  the  Phcedo :  "  To  use 
words  wrongly  and  indefinitely  is  not  merely  an  error 
in  itself;  it  also  creates  evil  in  the  soul."  *  What 
noxious  misconceptions,  w'hat  mistaken  ideals  of  life,  are 
due  to  the  abuse  of  these  four  words  alone :  "  noble," 
"  gentleman,"  "  honour"  and  "  Christian  " !  By  applying 
these,  in  flattery  or  deceit,  to  persons  unworthy  of  them, 
men  have  not  only  deprived  them  of  the  virtue  ^hich 
originally  the  mere  utterance  of  them  was  enough  to  instil 
into  the  heart,  but  have  sent  forth  to  the  world  under 
their  attractiveness  second-rate  types  of  character  and 


*  Cf.  further  with  this  passage  F.  J.  Chuich,   Trial  and  Death  cf 

Socrates,  introd.  xli.  fi". 


xxxii.  1—8,]  A    MAN.  261 

ideals.  The  word  "  goiitlemaa" !  How  the  heart  sickens 
as  it  thinks  what  a  number  of  people  have  been  satisfied 
to  aim  at  a  shoddy  and  superficial  life  because  it  was 
labelled  with  this  gracious  name.  Conventionalism  has 
deprived  the  English  language  of  some  of  its  most 
powerful  sermons  by  devoting  terms  of  singular  moral 
expressiveness  to  do  duty  as  mere  labels  upon  characters 
that  are  dead,  or  on  ranks  and  offices,  for  the  designation 
of  which  mere  cyphers  might  have  sufficed. 

We  must  not  forget,  however,  Isaiah's  chief  means 
for  the  abolition  of  this  conventionalism  and  the  substi- 
tution of  a  true  moral  vision  and  terminology.  These 
results  are  to  follow  from  the  presence  of  the  great 
character,  A  Man,  whom  he  has  already  lifted  up. 
Conventionalism  is  another  of  the  drifts  which  that 
Rock  has  to  arrest.  Setting  ourselves  to  revise  our  dic- 
tionaries or  to  restore  to  our  words  their  original  mean- 
ings out  of  our  memories  is  never  enough.  The 
rising  of  a  conspicuous  character  alone  can  dissipate 
the  moral  haze ;  the  sense  of  his  influence  will  alone 
fill  emptied  forms  with  meaning.  So  Christ  Jesus 
judged  and  judges  the  world  by  His  simple  presence ; 
men  fall  to  His  right  hand  and  to  His  left.  He  calls 
things  by  their  right  names,  and  restores  to  each  term 
of  religion  and  morals  its  original  ideal,  which  the 
vulgar  use  of  the  world  had  worn  away.* 

*  Cf.  with  the  fifth  and  sixth  verses  of  chap,  xxxii.  the  forcible 
passage  in  the  introduction  to  Carlyle's  Cromweir s  Letters,  beginning, 
"  Sure  enough,  in  the  Heroic  Century,  as  in  the  Unheroic,  Ivoaves 
and  cowards  .  .  .  were  not  wanting.  But  the  question  always 
remains,  Did  they  lie  chained  ?  "  etc 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

ISAIAH   TO   WOMEN. 
Isaiah  xxxii.  9 — 20  (date  uncertain). 

THE  date  of  this  prophecy,  which  has  been  appended 
to  those  spoken  by  Isaiah  during  the  Egyptian 
intrigues  (704 — 702),  is  not  certain.  It  is  addressed  to 
women,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  the  prophet,  when 
he  was  upbraiding  the  men  of  Judah  for  their  false 
optimism,  should  not  also  have  sought  to  awaken  the 
conscience  of  their  wives  and  daughters  on  what  is 
the  besetting  sin  rather  of  women  than  of  men.  The 
chief  evidence  for  dissociating  the  prophecy  from 
its  immediate  predecessors  is  that  it  predicts,  or 
apparently  predicts  (vv.  13 — 14),  the  ruin  of  Jerusalem, 
whereas  in  these  years  Isaiah  was  careful  to  exempt 
the  Holy  City  from  the  fate  which  he  saw  falling  on  the 
rest  of  the  land.  But  otherwise  the  argument  of  the 
prophecy  is  almost  exactly  that  of  chaps,  xxix. — xxx. 
By  using  the  same  words  when  he  blames  the  women 
for  ease  and  carelessness  in  vv.  9 — ii,  as  he  does 
when  he  promises  confidence  and  quiet  resting-places  in 
vv.  17,  18,  Isaiah  makes  clear  that  his  purpose  is  to 
contrast  the  false  optimism  of  society  during  the  post- 
ponement of  the  Assyrian  invasion  with  that  confidence 
and  stability  upon  righteousness  which  the  Spirit  of 
God  can  alone   create.     The    prophecy,   too,    has    the 


xxxii.  9— 20.]  ISAIAH   TO   WOMEN.  263 

usual  three  stages  :  sin  in  the  present,  judgement  in 
the  immediate  future,  and  a  state  of  blessedness  in 
the  latter  days.  The  near  date  at  which  judgement  is 
threatened — days  beyond  a  year — ought  to  be  compared 
with  chap.  xxix.  I  :  Add  ye  a  year  to  a  year;  let  the 
feasts  come  round. 

The  new  points  are — that  it  is  the  women  who  are 
threatened,  that  Jerusalem  itself  is  pictured  in  ruin, 
and  that  the  pouring  out  of  the  Spirit  is  promised  as 
the  cause  of  the  blessed  future. 

I.  The  Charge  to  the  Women  (vv.  9 — 12) 

is  especially  interesting,  not  merely  for  its  own  terms, 
but  because  it  is  only  part  of  a  treatment  of  women 
which  runs  through  the  whole  of  Scripture. 

Isaiah  had  already  delivered  against  the  women  of 
Jerusalem  a  severe  diatribe  (chap,  iii.),  the  burden 
of  which  was  their  vanity  and  haughtiness.  With 
the  satiric  temper,  which  distinguishes  his  earlier  pro- 
phecies, he  had  mimicked  their  ogling  and  mincing 
gait,  and  described  pin  by  pin  their  fashions  and 
ornaments,  promising  them  instead  of  these  things 
rottenness  and  baldness,  and  a  girdle  of  sackcloth  and 
branding  for  beauty.  But  he  has  grown  older,  and 
penetrating  below  their  outward  fashion  and  gait,  he 
charges  them  with  thoughtlessness  as  the  besetting  sin 
of  their  sex.  Ye  zvomen  that  are  at  ease,  rise  up,  and 
hear  my  voice;  ye  careless  daughters,  give  ear  to  my  speech. 
For  days  beyond  a  year  shall  ye  be  troubled,  O  careless 
women,  fur  the  vintage  shall  fail;  the  ingathering  shall 
not  come.  Tremble,  ye  women  that  are  at  ease  ;  be  troubled, 
ye  careless  ones.  By  a  pair  of  epithets  he  describes 
their  fault ;  and  almost  thrice  does  he  repeat  the  pair, 
as    if   he  would    emphasize    it  past    all    doubt.     The 


2r>.,  TIJE  BOOK  OF  IS  AT  AH. 

besetting  sin  of  women,  as  he  dins  into  them,  is  ease  ; 
an  ignorant  and  unthinking  contentment  with  things  as 
they  are ;  thoughtlessness  with  regard  to  the  deeper 
mysteries  of  Hfe ;  disbehef  in  the  possibility  of  change. 
But  Isaiah  more  than  hints  that  these  besetting  sins 
of  women  are  but  the  defects  of  their  virtues.  The 
literal  meaning  of  the  two  adjectives  he  uses,  at  ease  and 
cairless,  is  restful  and  trustful.  Scripture  throughout 
employs  these  words  both  in  a  good  and  a  bad  sense. 
Isaiah  does  so  himself  in  this  very  chapter  (compare 
these  verses  with  vv.  17,  18).  In  the  next  chapter  he 
describes  the  state  of  Jerusalem  after  redemption  as  a 
state  of  case  or  restfuhicss,  and  we  know  that  he  never 
ceased  urging  the  people  to  trustfulness.  For  such 
truly  religious  conditions  he  uses  exactly  the  same 
names  as  for  the  shallow  optimism  v;ith  which  he  now 
charges  his  countrywomen.  And  so  doing,  he  reminds 
us  of  an  important  law  of  character.  The  besetting 
sins  of  either  sex  are  its  virtues  prostituted.  A  man's 
greatest  temptations  proceed  from  his  strength ;  but 
the  glory  of  the  feminine  nature  is  repose,  and  trust 
is  the  strength  of  the  feminine  character,  in  which 
very  things,  however,  lies  all  the  possibility  of  woman's 
degradation.  Woman's  faith  amounts  at  times  to  real 
intuition ;  but  what  risks  are  attached  to  this  prophetic 
power — of  impatience,  of  contentment  with  the  first 
glance  at  things,  "  the  inclination,"  as  a  great  moralist 
has  put  it,  "to  take  too  easily  the  knowledge  of  the 
problems  of  life,  and  to  rest  content  with  what  lies 
nearest  her,  instead  of  penetrating  to  a  deeper  founda- 
tion." Women  are  full  of  indulgence  and  hope ;  but 
what  possibilities  lie  there  of  deception,  false  optimism, 
and  want  of  that  anxiety  which  alone  makes  progress 
possible.      Women   are   more  inclined    than    men    to 


xxxii.  9— 20.]  ISAIAH   TO   WOMEN.  265 

believe  all  things ;  but  how  certain  is  such  a  temper  to 
sacrifice  the  claims  of  truth  and  honour.  Women  are 
full  of  tact,  the  just  favourites  of  success,  with  infinite 
power  to  plead  and  please ;  but  if  they  are  aware  of  this, 
how  certain  is  such  a  ,  self-consciousness  to  produce 
negligence  and  the  fatal  sleep  of  the  foolish  virgins. 

Scripture  insists  repeatedly  on  this  truth  of  Isaiah's 
about  the  besetting  sin  of  women.  The  prophet  Amos 
has  engraved  it  in  one  of  his  sharpest  epigrams,  declar- 
ing that  thoughtlessness  is  capable  of  turning  women 
into  very  brutes,  and  their  homes  into  desolate  ruins : 
Hear  this  ivord,  ye  kine  of  Bashan,  that  are  in  the  moun- 
tain of  Samaria,  which  oppress  the  poor,  which  crush  the 
needy,  ivhich  say  unto  their  lords,  Bring  and  let  us  drink. 
The  Lordjcliovah  hath  sivorn  by  His  holiness  tJiat,  lo,  the 
days  shall  come  upon  you  tliat  they  shall  take  you  aivay 
with  hooks,  and  your  residue  tvith  fish-hooks,  and  ye  shall 
go  out  at  the  breaches,  every  one  straight  before  her,  and 
ve  shall  cast  yourselves  into  Harmon,  saith  Jehovah. 
It  is  a  cowherd's  picture  of  women :  a  troop  of  cows, 
heavy,  heedless  animals,  trampling  in  their  anxiet}'  for 
food  upon  every  frail  and  lowly  object  in  the  way. 
There  is  a  cowherd's  coarseness  in  it,  but  a  prophet's 
iasight  into  character.  Not  of  Jezebels,  or  Messalinas, 
or  Lady-Macbeths  is  it  spoken,  but  of  the  ordinary 
matrons  of  Samaria.  Thoughtlessness  is  able  to  make 
brutes  out  of  women  of  gentle  nurture,  with  homes  and 
a  religion.  For  thoughtlessness  when  joined  to  luxury 
or  beauty  plays  with  cruel  weapons.  It  means  greed, 
arrogance,  indifference  to  suffering,  wantonness,  pride 
of  conquest,  dissimulation  in  love,  and  revenge  for 
little  slights ;  and  there  is  no  waste,  unkind  sport,  in- 
solence, brutality,  or  hysterical  violence  to  which  it  will 
not  lead.     Such  women  are  knovv'n,  as  Amos  pictured 


2(f,  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

them,  through  many  degrees  of  this  thoughtlessness  : 
interrupters  of  conversation,  an  offence  to  the  wise; 
dcvourers  of  many  of  the  little  ones  of  God's  creation 
for  the  sake  of  their  own  ornament ;  tormentors  of  ser- 
vants and  subordinates  for  the  sake  of  their  own  ease; 
out  of  the  enjoyment  of  power  or  for  admiration's 
sake  breakers  of  hearts.  And  are  not  all  such 
victims  of  thoughtlessness  best  compared,  with  Amos, 
to  a  cow — an  animal  that  rushes  at  its  grass  care- 
less of  the  many  daisies  and  ferns  it  tramples,  that 
will  destroy  the  beauty  of  a  v^hole  country  lane  for  a 
few  mouthfuls  of  herbage  ?  Thoughtlessness,  says  Amos 
— and  the  Lord  GOD  hath  sworn  it  by  His  holiness — 
is  the  very  negation  of  womanhood,  the  ruin  of  homes. 
But  when  we  turn  from  the  degradation  of  woman 
as  thus  exposed  by  the  prophets  to  her  glory  as  lifted 
up  in  the  New  Testament,  we  find  that  the  same  note 
is  struck.  Woman  in  the  New  Testament  is  gracious 
according  as  she  is  thoughtful ;  she  offends  even  when 
otherwise  beautiful  by  her  feeling  overpowering  her 
thought.  Martha  spoils  a  most  estimable  character  by 
one  moment  of  unthinking  passion,  in  which  she  accuses 
the  Master  of  carelessness.  Mary  chooses  the  better 
part  in  close  attention  to  her  Master's  words.  The 
Ten  Virgins  are  divided  into  five  wise  and  five  foolish. 
Paul  seems  to  have  been  struck,  as  Isaiah  was,  with  the 
natural  tendency  of  the  female  character,  for  the  first 
duty  he  lays  upon  the  old  women  is  to  teach  the  yoitng 
women  to  think  discreetly,  and  he  repeats  the  injunction, 
putting  it  before  chastity  and  industry — Teach  them,  he. 
says,  teach  them  discretion  (Titus  ii.  4,  5).  In  Mary 
herself,  the  mother  of  our  Lord,  we  see  two  graces  of 
character,  to  the  honour  of  which  Scripture  gives  equal 
place — faith  and  thouglufulncss.     1  he    few  sentences, 


xxxii.  9-20.]  ISAIAH  TO   WOMEN.  267 

whicli  are  all  that  lie  devotes  to  Mary's  character,  the 
Evangelist  divides  equally  between  these  two.  She 
was  called  blessed  because  she  believed  the  word  of 
the  Lord.  But  trustfulness  did  not  mean  in  her,  as  in 
other  women,  neglect  to  think.  Twice,  at  an  interval  of 
twelve  years,  we  are  shown  thoughtfulness  and  careful- 
ness of  memory  as  the  habitual  grace  of  this  first  among 
women.  Mary  kept  all  these  things  and  pondered  them 
in  her  heart.  His  mother  kept  all  these  sayings  in  her 
heart:'^  What  was  Mary's  glory  was  other  women's 
salvation.  By  her  own  logic  the  sufferer  of  Capernaum, 
whom  many  physicians  failed  to  benefit,  found  her 
cure;  by  her  persistent  argument  the  Syrophenician 
woman  received  her  daughter  to  health  again.  And 
when  our  Lord  met  that  flippant  descendant  of  the  kinc 
of  Baslian,  that  are  in  the  mount  of  Samaria,  how  did 
He  treat  her  that  He  might  save  her  but  by  giving  her 
matter  to  think  about,  by  speaking  to  her  in  riddles, 
by  exploding  her  superficial  knowledge,  and  scattering 
her  easy  optimism  ? 

So  does  all  Scripture  declare,  in  harmony  with  the 
oracle  of  Isaiah,  that  thoughtlessness  and  easy  content- 
ment with  things  as  they  be,  are  the  besetting  sins  of 
woman.     But  her  glory  is  discretion. 

II.  The  next  new  point  in  this  prophecy  is  the 

Destruction  of  Jerusalem  (vv.  13 — 15). 

Upon  the  land  of  my  people  shall  come  up  thorns  and 
briers;  yea,  upon  all  the  houses  of  joy  in  the  joyous  city : 
for  the  palace  shall  be  forsaken  ;  the  populous  city  shall  be 
deserted;  Ophel  and  the  IVatch-toiver  shall  be  for  dens 
for  ever,  a  joy  of  ivild  asses,  a  pasture  of  jlocks.  The 
attempt  has  been  made  to  confine  this  reference  to  the 

*  Cf.  Newman,  Oxford  University  Sermons,  xv. 


268  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

outskirts  of  the  sacred  city,  but  it  is  hardly  a  just  one. 
The  prophet,  though  he  does  not  name  the  city, 
evidently  means  Jerusalem,  and  means  the  whole  of  it. 
Some  therefore  deny  the  authenticity  of  the  prophecy. 
Certainly  it  is  almost  impossible  to  suppose,  that  so 
definite  a  sentence  of  ruin  can  have  been  published  at 
the  same  time  as  the  assurances  of  Jerusalem's  inviola- 
bility in  the  preceding  orations.  But  that  does  not 
prevent  the  hypothesis  that  it  was  uttered  by  Isaiah  at 
an  earlier  period,  when,  as  in  chaps,  ii.  and  iii.,  he 
did  say  extreme  things  about  the  destruction  of  his 
city.  It  must  be  noticed,  however,  that  Isaiah  speaks 
with  some  vagueness ;  that  at  the  present  moment 
he  is  not  concerned  with  any  religious  truth  or  will 
of  the  Almighty,  but  simply  desires  to  contrast  the 
careless  gaiety  of  the  women  of  Jerusalem  with  the  fate 
hanging  over  them.  How  could  he  do  this  more 
forcibly  than  by  turning  the  streets  and  gardens  oj 
their  delights  into  ruins  and  the  haunts  of  the  wild  ass, 
even  though  it  should  seem  inconsistent  with  his 
declaration  that  Zion  was  inviolable  ?  Licence  for  a 
certain  amount  of  inconsistency  is  absolutely  necessary 
in  the  case  of  a  prophet  who  had  so  many  divers  truths 
to  utter  to  so  many  opposite  interests  and  tempers. 
Besides,  at  this  time  he  had  already  reduced  Jerusalem 
very  low  (xxix.  4). 

III.  The  Spirit  Outpoured  (vv.  15 — 20). 

The  rest  of  the  prophecy  is  luminous  rather  than 
lucid,  full  of  suffused  rather  than  distinct  meanings. 
The  date  of  the  future  regeneration  is  indefinite — 
another  feature  more  in  harmony  with  Isaiah's  earlier 
prophecies  than  his  later.  The  cause  of  the  blessing  is 
the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  of  God  (vcr.  15),  Righteous- 


xxxii.  9— 20.]  ISAIAH   TO    WOMEN.  269 


ness.  and  peace  are  to  come  to  earth  by  a  distinct  creative 
act  of  God.  Isaiah  adds  his  voice  to  the  invariable 
testimony  of  prophets  and  apostles,  who,  whether 
they  speak  of  society  or  the  heart  of  individual  man, 
place  their  hope  in  new  life  from  above  by  the  Spirit 
of  the  living  God.  Victor  Hugo  says,  "  There  are 
no  weeds  in  society,  only  bad  cultivators ; "  and  places 
all  hope  of  progress  towards  perfection  in  proper 
methods  of  social  culture.  These  are  needed,  as  much 
as  the  corn,  w'hich  will  not  spring  from  the  sunshine 
alone,  requires  the  hand  of  the  sower,  and  the  harrow. 
And  Isaiah,  too,  speaks  here  of  human  conduct  and 
effort  as  required  to  fill  up  the  blessedness  of  the 
future :  righteousness  and  labour.  But  first,  and  in- 
dispensably, he,  with  all  the  prophets,  places  the 
Spirit  of  God. 

It  appears  that  Isaiah  looked  for  the  fruits  of 
the  Spirit  both  as  material  and  moral.  He  bases  the 
quiet  resting-places  and  regular  labours  of  the  future 
not  on  righteousness  only,  but  on  fertility  and  righteous- 
ness. The  wilderness  shall  become  a  fruitful  field,  and 
what  is  to-day  a  fruitful  field  shall  be  counted  as  a  forest. 
That  this  proverb,  used  by  Isaiah  more  than  once,  is 
not  merely  a  metaphor  for  the  moral  revolution  he 
describes  in  the  next  verse,  is  proved  by  his  having 
already  declared  the  unfruitfulness  of  their  soil  as  part 
of  his  people's  punishment.  Fertility  is  promised  for 
itself,  and  as  the  accompaniment  of  moral  bountifulness. 
Ajid  there  shall  dwell  in  the  wilderness  fiistice,  and 
righteousness  shall  abide  in  the  fruitful  field.  And  the 
work  of  righteousness  shall  be  peace,  and  the  effect,  or 
service,  of  righteousness,  quietness  and  confidence  for 
ever.  And  my  people  shall  abide  in  a  peaceable  habita- 
tion, and  in  sure  dwellings,  ami  in  quiet  resting-places. 


270  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

.  .  .  Blessed  are  ye  that  sow  beside  all  waters,  that  send 
forth  the  feet  of  the  ox  and  the  ass  ! 

There  is  not  a  prophecy  more  characteristic  of  Isaiah. 
It  unfolds  what  for  him  were  the  two  essential  and 
equal  contents  of  the  will  of  God  :  a  secure  land  and  s 
righteous  people,  the  fertility  of  nature  and  the  purit}) 
of  society.  But  in  those  years  (705 — 702)  he  did 
not  forget  that  something  must  come  between  him  and 
that  paradise.  Across  the  very  middle  of  his  vision 
of  felicity  there  dashes  a  cruel  storm.  In  the  gap 
indicated  above  Isaiah  wrote,  But  it  shall  hail  in 
the  doivnfall  of  the  forest,  and  the  city  shall  be  utterly 
laid  low.  A  hailstorm  between  the  promise  and  fulfil- 
ment of  summer  !  Isaiah  could  only  mean  the  Assyrian 
invasion,  which  Vv'as  now  lowering  so  dark.  Before  it 
bursts  we  must  follow  him  to  the  survey  which  he 
made,  during  these  years  before  the  siege  of  Jerusalem, 
of  the  foreign  nations  on  whom,  equally  with  Jei'usalem, 
that  storm  was  to  sweep. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

ISAIAH  TO  THE  FOREIGN  NATIONS. 
Isaiah  xiv.  24 — 32,  xv.— xxi.,  and  xxiii.  (736—702  B.C.). 

THE  centre  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah  (chaps,  xiii.  to 
xxiii.)  is  occupied  by  a  nuniber  of  long  and  short 
prophecies  which  are  a  fertile  source  of  perplexity  to 
the  conscientious  reader  of  the  Bible.  With  the  ex- 
hilaration of  one  who  traverses  plain  roads  and  beholds 
vast  prospects,  he  has  passed  through  the  opening 
chapters  of  the  book  as  far  as  the  end  of  the  twelfth  ; 
and  he  may  look  forward  to  enjoying  a  similar  experience 
when  he  reaches  those  other  clear  stretches  of  vision 
from  the  twenty-fourth  to  the  twenty-seventh  and  from 
the  thirtieth  to  the  thirty-second.  But  here  he  loses  him- 
self among  a  series  of  prophecies  obscure  in  themselves 
and  without  obvious  relation  to  one  another.  The  sub- 
jects of  them  are  the  nations,  tribes  and  cities  with 
which  in  Isaiah's  day,  by  war  or  treaty  or  common  fear 
in  face  of  the  Assyrian  conquest,  Judah  was  being 
brought  into  contact.  There  are  none  of  the  familiar 
names  of  the  land  and  tribes  of  Israel  which  meet  the 
reader  in  other  obscure  prophecies  and  lighten  their 
darkness  with  the  face  of  a  friend.  The  names  and 
allusions  are  foreign,  some  of  them  the  names  of  tribes 
long  since  extinct,  and  of  places  which  it  is  no  more 
possible  to  identify.     It  is  a  very  jungle  of  prophecy,  irj 


272  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 


which,  without  much  Gospel  or  geographical  light,  we 
have  to  grope  our  way,  thankful  for  an  occasional  gleam 
of  the  picturesque — a  sandstorm  in  the  desert,  the 
forsaken  ruins  of  Babylon  haunted  by  wild  beasts,  a 
view  of  Egypt's  canals  or  Phoenicia's  harbours,  a 
glimpse  of  an  Arab  raid  or  of  a  grave  Ethiopian 
embassy. 

But  in  order  to  understand  the  Book  of  Isaiah,  in  order 
to  understand  Isaiah  himself  in  some  of  the  largest  of  his 
activities  and  hopes,  we  must  traverse  this  thicket.  It 
would  be  tedious  and  unprofitable  to  sear'ch  every  corner 
of  it.  We  propose,  therefore,  to  give  a  list  of  the 
various  oracles,  with  their  dates  and  titles,  for  the 
guidance  of  Bible-readers,  then  to  take  three  represen- 
tative texts  and  gather  the  meaning  of  all  the  oracles 
round  them. 

First,  however,  two  of  the  prophecies  must  be  put 
aside.  The  twent3'-second  chapter  does  not  refer  to-  a 
foreign  State,  but  to  Jerusalem  itself;  and  the  large 
prophecy  which  opens  the  series  (chaps,  xiii. — xiv.  23) 
deals  with  the  overthrow  of  Babylon  in  circumstances 
that  did  not  arise  till  long  after  Isaiah's  time,  and  so 
falls  to  be  considered  by  us  along  with  similar  prophecies 
at  the  close  of  this  volume.     (See  Book  V.) 

All  the  rest  of  these  chapters — xiv. — xxi.  and  xxiii. — 
refer  to  Isaiah's  own  day.  They  were  delivered  by  the 
prophet  at  various  times  throughout  his  career ;  but  the 
most  of  them  evidently  date  from  immediately  after  the 
year  705,  when,  on  the  death  of  Saigon,  there  was  a 
general  rebellion  of  the  Assyrian  vassals. 

1.  xiv.  24 — 27.  Oath  of  Jehovah  that  the  Assyrian 
shall  be  broken.     Probable  date,  towards  701. 

2.  xiv.  28 — 32.  Oracle  for  Philistia.  Warning 
to  Philistia  not  to  rejoice  because  one  Assyrian  king  is 


ISAIAH   TO   THE  FOREIGN  NATIONS.  273 

dead,  for  a  worse  one  shall  arise :  Out  of  the  serpent's 
root  shall  come  forth  a  basilisk.  Philistia  shall  be  melted 
away,  but  Zion  shall  stand.  The  inscription  to  this 
oracle  (ver.  28)  is  not  genuine.  The  oracle  plainly 
speaks  of  the  death  and  accession  of  Assyrian,  not 
Judgean,  kings.  It  may  be  ascribed  to  705,  the  date  of 
the  death  of  Sargon  and  accession  of  Sennacherib.  But 
some  hold  that  it  refers  to  the  previous  change  on  the 
Assyrian  throne — the  death  of  Sahnanassar  and  the 
accession  of  Sargon. 

3.  XV, — xvi.  12.  Oracle  for  Moab.  A  long 
prophecy  against  Moab,  This  oracle,  whether  origin- 
ally by  himself  at  an  earlier  period  of  his  life,  or  more 
probably  by  an  older  prophet,  Isaiah  adopts  and  ratifies, 
and  intimates  its  immediate  fulfilment,  in  xvi,  13,  14  : 
This  is  the  ivord  which  Jehovah  spake  concerning  Moab 
long  ago.  But  now  Jeliovah  hath  spoken,  saying,  Within 
three  years,  as  the  years  oj  an  hireling,  and  the  glory  of 
Moab  shall  be  brought  into  contempt  ivitli  all  the  great 
multitude,  and  the  remnant  shall  be  very  small  and  of  no 
account.  The  dates  both  of  the  original  publication 
of  this  prophecy  and  of  its  reissue  with  the  appendix 
are  quite  uncertain.  The  latter  may  fall  about  711, 
when  Moab  was  threatened  by  Sargon  for  complicity  in 
the  Ashdod  conspiracy  (p.  198),  or  in  704,  when,  with 
other  States,  Moab  came  under  the  cloud  of  Senna- 
cherib's invasion.  The  main  prophecy  is  remarkable 
for  its  vivid  picture  of  the  disaster  that  has  overtaken 
Moab  and  for  the  sympathy  with  her  which  the  Jewish 
prophet  expresses;  for  the  mention  of  a  remnant  of 
Moab;  for  the  exhortation  to  her  to  send  tribute  in  her 
adversity  to  the  mount  of  the  daughter  of  Zion  (xvi,  i) ; 
for  an  appeal  to  Zion  to  shelter  the  outcasts  of  Moab 
and  to  take  up  her  cause  :  Bring  counsel,  nuike  a  decision, 

VOL.    I.  18 


274  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

make  thy  shadow  as  the  night  in  the  midst  of  the  noon- 
day;  hide  the  outcasts,  bewray  not  the  wanderer,'  for  a 
statement  of  the  Messiah  similar  to  those  in  chaps,  ix. 
and  xi. ;  and  for  the  offer  to  the  oppressed  Moabites  of 
the  security  of  Judah  in  Messianic  times  (vv.  4,  5). 
But  there  is  one  great  obstacle  to  this  prospect  of  Moab 
lying  down  in  the  shadow  of  Judah — Moab's  arrogance. 
We  have  heard  of  the  pride  of  Moab,  that  he  is  very  proud 
(ver.  6,  cf.  Jer.  xlviii.  29,  42  ;  Zeph.  ii.  10),  which  pride 
shall  not  only  keep  this  country  in  ruin,  but  prevent 
the  Moabites  prevailing  in  prayer  at  their  own  sanctu- 
ary (ver.  12) — a  very  remarkable  admission  about  the 
worship  of  another  god  than  Jehovah, 

4.  xvii.  I — II.  Oracle  FOR  Damascus.  One  of  the 
earliest  and  most  crisp  of  Isaiah's  prophecies.  Of  the 
time  of  Syria's  and  Ephraim's  league  against  Judah, 
somewhere  between  "j'^G  and  732. 

5.  xvii.  12 — 14.  Untitled.  The  crash  of  the  peoples 
upon  Jerusalem  and  their  dispersion.  This  magni- 
ficent piece  of  sound,  which  we  analyse  below,  is 
usually  understood  of  Sennacherib's  rush  upon  Jeru- 
salem. Verse  14  is  an  accurate  summary  of  the 
sudden  break-up  and  "retreat  from  Moscow"  of  his 
army.  The  Assyrian  hosts  are  described  as  nations,  as 
they  are  elsewhere  more  than  once  by  Isaiah  (x^ii.  6, 
xxix.  7).  But  in  all  this  there  is  no  final  reason  for 
referring  the  oracle  to  Sennacherib's  invasion,  and  it 
may  just  as  well  be  interpreted  of  Isaiah's  confidence 
of  the  defeat  of  Syria  and  Ephraim  (734 — 7'^2))-  ^^^ 
proximity  to  the  oracle  against  Damascus  would  then 
be  very  natural,  and  it  would  stand  as  a  parallel 
prophecy  to  viii,  9  :  Make  an  uproar,  O  ye  peoples,  and 
ye  shall  be  broken  in  pieces;  and  give  ear,  all  ye  of  the 
distances  of  tJie  earth :  gird  yourselves,  and  ye  shall  be 


ISAIAH  TO   THE  FOREIGN  NATIONS.  275 

broken  in  pieces;  gird  yourselves,  and  ye  shall  be  broken 
in  pieces — a  prophecy  which  we  know  belongs  to  the 
period  of  the  Syro-Ephraimitic  league. 

6.  xviii.  Untitled.  An  address  to  Ethiopia,  land 
of  a  riistliiig  of  wings,  land  of  many  sails,  whose  mes- 
sengers dart  to  and  fro  upon  the  rivers  in  their  skiffs  of 
reed.  The  prophet  tells  Ethiopia,  cast  into  excitement 
by  the  news  of  the  Assyrian  advance,  how  Jehovah  is 
resting  quietly  till  the  Assyrian  be  ripe  for  destruction. 
When  the  Ethiopians  shall  see  His  sudden  miracle, 
they  shall  send  their  tribute  to  Jehovah,  to  the  place  of 
the  name  of  Jehovah  of  hosts,  Mount  Zion.  It  is  difficult 
to  know  to  which  southward  march  of  Assyria  to 
ascribe  this  prophecy— Sargon's  or  Sennacherib's  ? 
Fqf  at  the  time  of  both  of  these  an  Ethiopian  ruled 
Egypt. 

7.  xix.  Oracle  for  Egypt.  The  first  fifteen  verses 
describe  judgement  as  ready  to  fall  on  the  land  of  the 
Pharaohs.  The  last  ten  speak  of  the  religious  results 
to  Eg3^pt  of  that  judgement,  and  they  form  the 
most  universal  and  "  missionary  "  of  all  Isaiah's  pro- 
phecies. Although  doubts  have  been  expressed  of  the 
Isaian  authorship  of  the  second  half  of  this  chapter  on 
the  score  of  its  universalism,  as  well  as  of  its  literary 
style,  which  is  judged  to  be  "a  pale  reflection"  of 
Isaiah's  own,  there  is  no  final  reason  for  declining  the 
credit  of  it  to  Isaiah,  while  there  are  insuperable 
difficulties  against  relegating  it  to  the  late  date  which  is 
sometimes  demanded  for  it.  On  the  date  and  authen- 
ticity of  this  prophecy,  which  are  of  great  importance 
for  the  question  of  Isaiah's  "missionary"  opinions,  see 
Cheyne's  introduction  to  the  chapter  and  Robertson 
Smith's  notes  in  The  Prophets  of  Israel  (p.  433).  The 
latter   puts  it  in   703,   during    Sennacherib's    advance 


276  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

upon  the  south.  The  former  suggests  that  the  second 
half  may  have  been  written  by  the  prophet  much  later 
than  the  first,  and  justly  says,  "  We  can  hardly  imagine 
a  more  '  swan-like  end '  for  the  dying  prophet." 

8.  XX.  UNxrrLED.  Also  upon  Egypt,  but  in  nar- 
rative and  of  an  earlier  date  than  at  least  the  latter  half 
of  xix.  Tells  how  Isaiah  walked  naked  and  barefoot  in 
the  streets  of  Jerusalem  for  a  sign  against  Egypt  and 
against  the  help  Judah  hoped  to  get  from  her  in  the  years 
711 — 709,  when  the  Tartan,  or  Assyrian  commander-in- 
chief,  came  south  to  subdue  Ashdod.    See  pp.  198 — 200. 

9.  xxi.  I — 10.  Oracle  for  the  Wilderness  of  the 
Sea,  announcing  but  lamenting  the  fall  of  Babylon. 
Probably  709.     See  pp.  202,  203. 

10.  xxi.  II,  12.  Oracle  for  Dumah.  Dumal^  or 
Silence — in  Ps.  xciv.  17,  ex  v.  17,  the  land  of  the  silence  oj 
dcaili,  the  grave — is  probably  used  as  an  anagram  for 
Edom  and  an  enigmatic  sign  to  the  wise  Edomites, 
in  their  own  fashion,  of  the  kind  of  silence  their 
land  is  lying  under — the  silence  of  rapid  decay.  The 
prophet  hears  this  silence  at  last  broken  by  a  cry. 
Edom  cannot  bear  the  darkness  any  more.  Unto  vie 
one  is  calling  from  Seir,  Watchman,  how  much  off  the 
night?  how  natch  off'  the  night?*  Said  the  ivatchnian, 
Cometh  the  morning,  and  also  the  night:  if  ye  will 
inquire,  inquire,  come  back  again.  What  other  answer 
is  possible  for  a  land  on  which  the  silence  of  decay 
seems    to    have    settled   down  ?     He    may,    however, 

*  Our  translation,  though  picturesque,  is  misleading.  The 
voire  does  not  inquire,  "What  of  the  night  ?"  i.e.,  whether  it  be  fair 
or  foul  weather,  but  "  How  much  of  the  night  is  passed?  "literally 
"What  from  off  the  night?"  This  brings  out  a  pathos  that  our 
English  version  has  disguised.  Edom  feels  that  her  night  is  last- 
ing terribly  long. 


ISAIAH  TO   THE  FOREIGN  NATIONS.  277 

give  them  an  answer  later  on,  if  they  will  come  back. 
Date  uncertain,  perhaps  between  704  and  701. 

11.  xxi.  13 — 17.  Oracle  for  Arabia.  From 
£dom  the  prophet  passes  to  their  neighbours  the 
Dedanites,  travelUng  merchants.  And  as  he  saw  night 
upon  Edom,  so,  by  a  play  upon  words,  he  speaks  of 
evening  upon  Arabia:  in  the  forest,  in  Arabia,  or  With. 
the  same  consonants,  in  the  evening.  In  the  time  of 
the  insecurity  of  the  Assyrian  invasion  the  travelling 
merchants  have  to  go  aside  from  their  great  trading 
roads  in  the  evening  to  lodge  in  the  thickets.  There 
they  entertain  fugitives,  or  (for  the  sense  is  not  quite 
clear)  are  themselves  as  fugitives  entertained.  It  is  a 
picture  of  the  grievousness  0/ war,  which  was  now  upon 
the  world,  flowing  down  even  those  distant,  desert 
roads.  But  things  have  not  yet  reached  the  worst.  The 
fugitives  are  but  the  heralds  of  armies,  that  within  a 
year  shall  waste  the  children  of  Kedar^  for  Jehovah,  the 
God  of  Israel,  hath  spoken  it.  So  did  the  prophet 
of  little  Jerusalem  take  possession  of  even  the  far 
deserts  in  the  name  of  his  nation's  God. 

12.  xxiii.  Oracle  for  Tyre.  Elegy  over  its  fall, 
probably  as  Sennacherib  came  south  upon  it  in  703  or 
702.    To  be  further  considered  by  us  (pp.  288jfir.). 


These  then  are  Isaiah's  oracles  for  the  Nations,  who 
tremble,  intrigue  and  go  down  before  the  might  of 
Assyria. 

We  have  promised  to  gather  the  circumstances  and 
meaning  of  these  prophecies  round  three  representative 
texts.     These  are — 

I.  Ah  !  the  booming  of  the  peoples,  the  multitudes,  like 
the  booming  of  the  seas  they  boom;  and  the  rushing  of  the 


278  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

nations,  like  the  rushing  of  mighty  waters  they  rush ; 
nations,  like  the  rushing  of  many  waters  they  rush. 
But  He  rebtiketh  it,  and  it  Jlccth  afar  off,  and  is  chased 
like  the  chaff  on  the  mountains  before  the  wind  and  like 
whirling  dust  before  the  vohirlwind  (xvii.  12,  13). 

2.  What  then  shall  otie  answer  the  messengers  of  a 
nation  ?  That  Jehovah  hath  founded  Zion,  and  in  her 
shall  find  refuge  the  afflicted  of  His  people  (xiv.  32). 

3.  In  that  day  shall  Israel  be  a  third  to  Egvpt  and  to 
Assyria,  a  blessing  in  tlie  midst  of  the  earth,  for  that 
fchovah  of  hosts  hath  blessed  them,  saying,  Blessed  be  Afy 
people  Egypt,  and  the  ivork  of  My  hands  Assyria,  and 
Mine  inheritance  Israel  (xix.  24,  25). 

I.  The  first  of  these  texts  shows  all  the  prophet's 
prospect  filled  with  storm,  the  second  of  them  the 
solitary  rock  and  lighthouse  in  the  midst  of  the  storm  : 
Zion,  his  own  watchtower  and  his  people's  refuge ; 
while  the  third  of  them,  looking  far  into  the  future,  tells 
us,  as  it  were,  of  the  firm  continent  which  shall  rise  out 
of  the  waters — Israel  no  longer  a  solitary  lighthouse,  bvit 
in  that  day  shall  Israel  be  a  third  to  Egvpt  and  to  Assyria, 
a  blessing  in  the  midst  of  the  earth.  These  three  texts 
give  us  a  summary  of  the  meaning  of  all  Isaiah's  obscure 
prophecies  to  the  foreign  nations — a  stormy  ocean,  a 
solitary  rock  in  the  midst  of  it,  and  the  new  continent 
that  shall  rise  out  of  the  waters  about  the  rock. 

The  restlessness  of  Western  Asia  beneath  the 
Assyrian  rule  (from  719,  when  Sargon's  victory  at 
Rafia  extended  that  rule  to  the  borders  of  Egypt) 
found  vent,  as  we  saw  (p.  198),  in  two  great  Explosions, 
for  both  of  which  the  mine  was  laid  by  Egyptian 
intrigue.  The  first  Explosion  happened  in  711,  and 
was  confined  to  Ashdod.  The  second  took  place 
on    Sargon's    death    in  705,  and    was  universal.      Till 


ISAIAH  TO    THE  FOREIGN  NATIONS.  279 


Sennacherib  marched  south  on  Palestine  in  701,  there 
were  all  over  Western  Asia  hurryings  to  and  fro, 
consultations  and  intrigues,  embassies  and  engineerings 
from  Babylon  to  Meroe  in  far  Ethiopia,  and  from  the 
tents  of  Kedar  to  the  cities  of  the  Philistines.  For 
these  Jerusalem,  the  one  inviolate  capital  from  the 
Euphrates  to  the  river  of  Egypt,  was  the  natural  centre. 
And  the  one  far-seeing,  steady-hearted  man  in  Jerusalem 
was  Isaiah.  We  have  already  seen  that  there  was 
enough  within  the  city  to  occupy  Isaiah's  attention, 
especially  from  705  onward  ;  but  for  Isaiah  the  walls 
of  Jerusalem,  dear  as  they  were  and  thronged  with  duty, 
neither  limited  his  sympathies  nor  marked  the  scope 
of  the  gospel  he  had  to  preach.  Jerusalem  is  simply 
his  watchtower.  His  field — and  this  is  the  peculiar 
glory  of  the  prophet's  later  life— his  field  is  the  world. 

How  well  fitted  Jerusalem  then  was  to  be  the  world's 
watchtower,  the  traveller  may  see  to  this  day.  The 
city  lies  upon  the  great  central  ridge  of  Palestine, 
at  an  elevation  of  two  thousand  five  hundred  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  sea.  If  you  ascend  the  hill 
behind  the  city,  you  stand  upon  one  of  the  great 
view-points  of  the  earth.  It  is  a  forepost  of  Asia.  To 
the  east  rise  the  red  hills  of  Moab  and  the  uplands 
of  Gilead  and  Bashan,  on  to  which  wandering  tribes  of 
the  Arabian  deserts  beyond  still  push  their  foremost 
camps.  Just  beyond  the  horizon  lie  the  immemorial 
paths  from  Northern  Syria  into  Arabia.  Within  a  few 
hours'  walk  along  the  same  central  ridge,  and  still 
within  the  territory  of  Judah,  you  may  see  to  the 
north,  over  a  wilderness  of  blue  hills,  Hermon's 
snowy  crest ;  you  know  that  Dam.ascus  is  lying  just 
beyond,  and  that  through  it  and  round  the  base  of 
Hermon   swings  one  of  the  longest  of  the  old  world's 


2So  THE  BOOK  OF  ISA t All. 

highways — the  main  caravan  road  from  the  Euphrates 
to  the  Nile.  Stand  at  gaze  for  a  httle,  while  down  that 
road  there  sweep  into  j^our  mind  thoughts  of  the  great 
empire,  whose  troops  and  commerce  it  used  to  carry. 
Then,  bearing  these  thoughts  with  you,  follow  the  line  of 
the  road  across  the  hills  to  the  western  coastland,  and 
so  out  upon  the  great  Egyptian  desert,  where  you  may 
wait  till  it  has  brought  you  imagination  of  the  southern 
empire  to  which  it  travels.  Then,  lifting  your  eyes  a 
little  further,  let  them  sweep  back  again  from  south  to 
north,  and  you  have  the  whole  of  the  west,  the  new  world, 
open  to  you,  across  the  fringe  of  yellow  haze  that 
marks  the  sands  of  the  Mediterranean.  It  is  even  now 
one  of  the  most  comprehensive  prospects  in  the  world. 
But  in  Isaiah's  day,  when  the  world  was  smaller,  the 
high  places  of  Judah  either  revealed  or  suggested  the 
whole  of  it. 

But  Isaiah  was  more  than  a  spectator  of  this  vast 
theatre.  He  was  an  actor  upon  it.  The  court  of  Judah, 
of  which  during  Hezekiah's  reign  he  was  the  most 
prominent  member,  stood  in  more  or  less  close  connection 
with  the  courts  of  all  the  kingdoms  of  Western  Asia;  and 
in  those  days  when  the  nations  were  busy  with  intrigue 
against  their  common  enemy  this  little  highland  town 
and  fortress  became  a  gathering  place  of  peoples.  From 
Babylon,  from  far-off  Ethiopia,  from  Edom,  from 
Philistia,  and  no  doubt  from  many  other  places  also, 
embassies  came  to  King  Hezekiah,  or  to  inquire  of  his 
prophet.  The  appearance  of  some  of  them  lives  for 
us  still  in  Isaiah's  descriptions  :  tall  and  shiny  figures 
of  Ethiopians  (xviii.  2),  with  whom  we  are  able  to 
identify  the  lithe,  silky-skinned,  shining-black  bodies 
of  the  present  tribes  of  the  Upper  Nile.  Now  the 
prophet  must  have  talked  much  with  these  strangers, 


ISAIAH   TO    THE  FOREICN  NATIONS.  2S1 

for  he  displays  a  knowledge  of  their  several  countries 
and  ways  of  life  that  is  full  and  accurate.  The  agri- 
cultural conditions  of  Egypt ;  her  social  ranks  and  her 
industries  (xix.);  the  harbours  and  markets  of  Tyre 
(xxiii.) ;  the  caravans  of  the  Arab  nomads  as  in 
times  of  war  they  shun  the  open  desert  and  seek 
the  thickets  (xxi.  14)— Isaiah  paints  these  for  us  with 
a  vivid  realism.  We  see  how  this  statesman  of  the 
least  of  States,  this  prophet  of  a  religion  which  was 
confessed  over  only  a  few  square  miles,  was  aware  of 
the  wide  world,  and  how  he  loved  the  life  that  filled  it. 
I'hey  are  no  mere  geographical  terms  with  which  Isaiah 
thickly  studs  these  prophecies.  He  looks  out  upon 
and  paints  for  us,  lands  and  cities  surging  with  men — 
their  trades,  their  castes,  their  religions,  their  besetting 
tempers  and  sins,  their  social  structures  and  national 
policies,  all  quick  and  bending  to  the  breeze  and  the 
shadow  of  the  coming  storm  from  the  north. 

We  have  said  that  in  nothing  is  the  regal  power  of 
our  prophet's  style  so  manifest  as  in  the  vast  horizons, 
which,  by  the  use  of  a  few  words,  he  calls  up,  before  us. 
Some  of  the  finest  of  these  revelations  are  made  in  this 
part  of  his  book,  so  obscure  and  unknown  to  most. 
Who  can  ever  forget  those  descriptions  of  Ethiopia  in 
the  eighteenth  chapter  ? — "Ah  !  the  land  of  the  rustling  oj 
zviiigs,  which  borders  on  the  rivers  of  Cush,  ivhich  sendcth 
heralds  on  the  sea,  and  in  vessels  of  reed  on  the  face  of 
the  waters  !  Travel,  fleet  messengers,  to  a  people  lithe  and 
shining,  to  a  nation  feared  from  ever  it  began  to  be,  a 
people  strong,  strong  and  trampling,  whose  land  the  rivers 
divide;  or  of  Tyre  in  cb.apter  xxiii.? — ''And  on  great 
waters  the  seed  of  Shihor,  the  harvest  of  the  Nile,  zvas  her 
revenut ;  and  she  was  the  mart  of  nations.  What  ex- 
panses of  sea  I  what  fleets  of  ships  !  what  floating  loads 


2S2  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

of  grain!  what  concourse  of  merchants  moving  on  stately 
wharves  beneath  high  warehouses  ! 

Yet  these  are  only  segments  of  horizons,  and  per- 
haps the  prophet  reaches  the  height  of  his  power  of 
expression  in  the  first  of  the  three  texts,  which  we 
have  given  as  representative  of  his  prophecies  on 
foreign  nations  (p.  278).  Here  three  or  four  lines  of 
marvellous  sound  repeat  the  effect  of  the  rage  of  the 
restless  world  as  it  rises,  storms  and  breaks  upo?!  the 
steadfast  will  of  God.  The  phonetics  of  the  pa^tssge 
are  wonderful.  The  general  impression  is  that  of  a 
stormy  ocean  booming  in  to  the  shore  and  then  crashing 
itself  out  into  one  long  hiss  of  spray  and  foam  upon 
its  barriers.  The  details  are  noteworthy.  In  vcr.  12 
we  have  thirteen  heavy  M-sounds,  besides  two  heavy 
E's,  to  five  N's,  five  H's,  and  four  sibilants.  But  in 
ver.  13  the  sibilants  predominate;  and  before  the 
sharp  rebuke  of  the  Lord  the  great,  booming  sound  of 
ver,  12  scatters  out  into  a  long  yish-slid  ^oon.  The 
occasional  use  of  a  prolonged  vowel  amid  so  many 
flurrying  consonants  produces  exactly  the  effect  now 
of  the  lift  of  a  storm  swell  out  at  sea  and  now  of  the 
pause  of  a  gieat  wave  before  it  crashes  on  the  shore. 
"^//,  the  booming  of  the  peoples,  the  nniltitiides,  like  the 
booming  of  the  seas  they  boom ;  and  the  rushing  of  the 
nations,  like  the  -rushing  of  the  mighty  waters  they  rush : 
nations,  like  llic  rushing  of  many  waters  they  rush.  But  He 
checketh  it—  a  short,  sharp  word  with  a  choke  and  a 
snort  in  \\.—and  it  Jleeth  far  away,  and  is  chased  like  chaff 
on  mountains  before  wind,  and  like  swirling  dust  before  a 
whirlwind. 

So  did  the  rage  of  the  world  sound  to  Isaiah  as 
it  crashed  into  pieces  upon  the  steadfast  providence 
of  God.     To   those   who   can  feel   the    force   of  such 


ISAIAH   TO   THE  FOREIGN  NATIONS.  2.S3 

language  nothing  need  be  added  upon  the  prophet's 
view  of  the  poHtics  of  the  outside  world  these  twenty 
years,  whether  portions  of  it  threatened  Judah  in  their 
own  strength,  or  the  whole  power  of  storm  that  was 
in  it  rose  with  the  Assyrian,  as  in  all  his  flood  he  rushed 
upon  Zion  in  the  year  701. 

2.  But  amid  this  storm  Zion  stands  immovable.  It 
is  upon  Zion  that  the  storm  crashes  itself  into  impotence. 
This  becomes  explicit  in  the  second  of  our  represent- 
ative texts  :  What  then  shall  one  answer  the  messengers 
of  a  nation  ?  Thai  Jehovah  hath  founded  Zion,  and  in 
her  shall  find  a  refuge  the  afflicted  of  His  people  (xiv.  32). 
This  oracle  was  drawn  from  Isaiah  by  an  embassy  of 
the  Philistines.  Stricken  with  panic  at  the  Assyrian  ad- 
vance, they  had  sent  messengers  to  Jerusalem,  as  other 
tribes  did,  with  questions  and  proposals  of  defences, 
escapes  and  alliances.  They  got  their  answer.  Alliances 
are  useless.  Everything  human  is  going  down.  Here, 
here  alone,  is  safety,  because  the  Lord  hath  decreed  it. 

With  what  light  and  peace  do  Isaiah's  words  break 
out  across  that  unquiet,  hungry  sea !  How  they  tell 
the  world  for  the  first  time,  and  have  been  telling  it 
ever  since,  that,  apart  from  all  the  struggle  and  strife  of 
history,  there  is  a  refuge  and  security  of  men,  which 
God  Himself  has  assured.  The  troubled  surface  of 
life,  nations  heaving  uneasily,  kings  of  Assyria  and 
their  armies  carrying  the  world  before  them — these 
are  not  all.  The  world  and  her  powers  are  not  all. 
Religion,  in  the  very  teeth  of  life,  builds  her  refuge  for 
the  afflicted. 

The  world  seems  wholly  divided  between  force  and 
fear.  Isaiah  says,  It  is  not  true.  Faith  has  her 
abiding  citadel  -in  the  midst,  a  house  of  God,  which 
neither  force  can  harm  nor  fear  enter. 


284  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

This  then  was  Isaiah's  Interim-Answer  to  the  Nations 
— Zion  at  least  is  secure  for  the  people  of  Jehovah. 

3.  Isaiah  could  not  remain  content,  however,  with  so 
harrow  an  interim-answer :  Zion  at  least  is  secure, 
whatever  happens  to  the  rest  of  you.  The  world  was 
there,  and  had  to  be  dealt  with  and  accounted  for — had 
even  to  be  saved.  As  we  have  already  seen,  this  was 
the  problem  of  Isaiah's  generation  ;  and  to  have  shirked 
it  would  have  meant  the  failure  of  his  faith  to  rank  as 
universal, 

Isaiah  did  not  shirk  it.  He  said  boldly  to  his  people, 
and  to  the  nations  :  "  The  faith  we  have  covers  this 
vaster  life.  Jehovah  is  not  only  God  of  Israel.  He 
rules  the  world."  These  prophecies  to  the  foreign 
nations  are  full  of  revelations  of  the  sovereignty  and 
providence  of  God.  The  Assyrian  may  seem  to  be 
growing  in  glory  ;  but  Jehovah  is  watching  from  the 
heavens,  till  he  be  ripe  for  cutting  down  (xviii.  4). 
Egypt's  statesmen  may  be  perverse  and  wilful ;  but 
Jehovah  of  hosts  swingeth  His  hand  against  the  land : 
they  shall  treuihle  and  shudder  (xix.  16).  Egypt  shall 
obey  His  purposes  (17).  Confusion  may  reign  for  a 
time,  but  a  signal  and  a  centre  shall  be  lifted  up,  and 
the  world  gather  itself  in  order  round  the  revealed  will 
of  God.  The  audacity  of  such  a  claim  for  his  God 
becomes  more  striking  when  we  remember  that  Isaiah's 
faith  was  not  the  faith  of  a  majestic  or  a  conquering 
people.  When  he  made  his  claim,  Judah  was  still  tribu- 
tary to  Assyria,  a  petty  highland  principality,  that  could 
not  hope  to  stand  by  material  means  agamst  the  forces 
which  had  thrown  down  her  more  powerful  neighbours. 
It  was  no  experience  of  success,  no  mere  instinct  of 
being  on  the  side  of  fate,  which  led  Isaiah  so  resolutely 
to  pronounce  that  not  only  should  his  people  be  secure, 


ISAIAH   TO   THE  FOREIGN  NATIONS.  2S5 

but  that  his  God  would  vindicate  His  purposes  upon 
empires  like  Egypt  and  Assyria.  It  was  simply  his 
sense  that  Jehovah  was  exalted  in  righteousness. 
Therefore,  while  inside  Judah  only  the  remnant  that 
took  the  side  of  righteousness  would  be  skved,  outside 
Judah  wherever  there  was  unrighteousness,  it  would 
be  rebuked,  and  wherever  righteousness,  it  would  be 
vindicated.  This  is  the  supremacy  which  Isaiah  pro- 
claimed for  Jehovah  over  the  whole  world. 

How  spiritual  this  faith  of  Isaiah  was,  is  seen  from 
the  next  step  the  prophet  took.  Looking  out  on  the 
troubled  world,  he  did  not  merely  assert  that  his  God 
ruled  it,  but  he  emphatically  said,  what  was  a  far  more 
difficult  thing  to  say,  that  it  would  all  be  consciously 
and  willingly  God's.  God  rules  this,  not  to  restrain  it 
only,  but  to  make  it  His  own.  The  knowledge  of  Him, 
which  is  to-day  our  privilege,  shall  be  to-morrow  the 
blessing  of  the  whole  world. 

When  we  point  to  the  Jewish  desire,  so  often  ex- 
pressed in  the  Old  Testament,  of  making  the  whole 
world  subject  to  Jehovah,  we  are  told  that  it  is 
simply  a  proof  of  religious  ambition  and  jealousy. 
We  are  told  that  this  wish  to  convert  the  world  no 
more  stamps  the  Jewish  religion  as  being  a  universal, 
and  therefore  presumably  a  Divine,  religion  thin 
the  Mohammedans'  zeal  to  force  their  tenets  on  men 
at  the  point  of  the  sword  is  a  proof  of  the  truth  of 
Islam. 

Now  we  need  not  be  concerned  to  defend  the  Jewish 
religion  in  its  every  particular,  even  as  propounded  by 
an  Isaiah.  It  is  an  article  of  the  Christian  creed  that 
Judaism  was  a  minor  and  imperfect  dispensation,  where 
truth  was  only  half  revealed  and  virtue  half  developed. 
But  at  least  let  us  do  the  Jewish  religion  justice ;  and 


286  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

we  shall  never  do  it  justice  till  we  pay  attention  to  what 
its  greatest  prophets  thought  of  the  outside  world,  how 
they  sympathized  with  this,  and  in  what  way  they 
proposed  to  make  it  subject  to  their  own  faith. 

Firstly  then,  there  is  something  in  the  very  manner 
of  Isaiah's  treatment  of  foreign  nations,  which  causes 
the  old  charges  of  religious  exclusiveness  to  sink  in  our 
throats.  Isaiah  treats  these  foreigners  at  least  as  men. 
Take  his  prophecies  on  Egypt  or  on  Tyre  or  on  Babylon 
— nations  which  were  the  hereditary  enemies  of  his 
nation — and  you  find  him  speaking  of  their  natural  mis- 
fortunes, their  social  decays,  their  national  follies  and 
disasters,  with  the  same  pity  and  with  the  same  purely 
moral  considerations,  with  which  he  has  treated  his 
own  land.  When  news  of  those  far-away  sorrows 
comes  to  Jerusalem,  it  moves  this  large-hearted  prophet 
to  mourning  and  tears.  He  breathes  out  to  distant 
lands  elegies  as  beautiful  as  he  has  poured  upon  Jeru- 
salem. He  shows  as  intelligent  an  interest  in  their 
social  evolutions  as  he  does  in  those  of  the  Jewish  State. 
He  gives  a  picture  of  the  industry  and  politics  of  Egypt 
as  careful  as  his  pictures  of  the  fashions  and  statecraft 
of  Judah.  In  short,  as  you  read  his  prophecies  upon 
foreign  nations,  you  perceive  that  before  the  eyes  of  this 
man  humanity,  broken  and  scattered  in  his  days  as  it 
was,  rose  up  one  great  whole,  every  part  of  which  was 
subject  to  the  same  laws  of  righteousness,  and  deserved 
from  the  prophet  of  God  the  same  love  and  pity.  -To 
some  few  tribes  he  says  decisively  that  they  shall 
certainly  be  wiped  out,  but  even  them  he  does  not 
address  in  contempt  or  in  hatred.  The  large  empire 
of  Egypt,  the  great  commercial  power  of  Tyre,  he 
speaks  of  in  language  of  respect  and  admiration ;  but 
that  does  not  prevent  him  from  putting  the  plain  issue 


ISAIAH  TO   THE  FOREIGN  NATIONS.  287 

to  them  which  he  put  to  his  own  countiymen :  If  you 
are  unrighteous,  intemperate,  impure — lying  dii)l  )niats 
and  dishonest  rulers,  you  shall  certlTmly  perish  before 
Assyria.  If  you  are  righteous,  temperate,  pure,  if  you 
do  trust  in  truth  and  God,  nothing  can  move  you. 

But,  secondly,  he,  who  thus  treated  all  nations  with  the 
same  strict  measures  of  justice  and  the  same  fulness  of 
pity  with  which  he  treated  his  own,  was  surely  not  far 
from  extending  to  the  world  the  religious  privileges, 
which  he  has  so  frequently  identified  with  Jerusalem. 
In  his  old  age,  at  least  Isaiah  looked  forward  to  the 
time  when  the  particular  religious  opportunities  of  the 
Jew  should  be  the  inheritance  of  humanity.  For  their 
old  oppressor  Egypt,  for  their  new  enemy  Assyria,  he 
anticipates  the  same  experience  and  education,  which 
has  made  Israel  the  firstborn  of  God.  Speaking  to 
Egypt,  Isaiah  concludes  a  missionary  sermon,  fit  to  take 
its  place  beside  that  which  Paul  uttered  on  the  Areopagus 
to  the  younger  Greek  civilisation,  with  the  words,  /// 
thai  day  shall  Israel  be  a  third  to  Egypt  and  to  Assyria, 
a  blessing  in  the  midst  of  the  earth,  for  that  Jehovah  of 
hosts  hath  blessed  them,  saying,  Blessed  be  Egypt  My 
people,  and  Assyria  the  work  of  My  hands  and  Israel 
Mine  inheritance. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

TYRE;    OR,    THE  MERCENARY  SPIRIT. 
Isaiah  xxiii.  (702  b.c). 

THE  task,  which  was  laid  upon  the  religion  of  Israel 
while  Isaiah  was  its  prophet,  was  the  task,  as 
we  have  often  told  ourselves,  of  facing  the  world's  forces, 
and  of  explaining  how  they  were  to  be  led  captive  and 
contributory  to  the  religion  of  the  true  God.  And  we 
have  already  seen  Isaiah  accounting  for  the  largest  of 
these  forces  :  the  Assyrian.  But  besides  Assyria,  that 
military  empire,  there  was  another  power  in  the  world, 
also  novel  to  Israel's  experience  and  also  in  Isaiah's 
day  grow^n  large  enough  to  demand  from  Israel's  faith 
explanation  and  criticism.  This  was  Commerce,  re- 
presented by  the  Phoenicians,  with  their  chief  seats  at 
Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  their  colonies  across  the  seas. 
Not  even  Egypt  exercised  such  influence  on  Isaiah's 
generation  as  Phoenicia  did  ;  and  Phoenician  influence, 
though  less  visible  and  painful  than  Assyrian,  was  just 
as  much  more  subtle  and  penetrating  as  in  these 
respects  the  influence  of  trade  exceeds  that  of  war. 
Assyria  herself  was  fascinated  by  the  glories  of 
Phoenician  commerce.  The  ambition  of  her  kings, 
who  had  in  that  century  pushed  south  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean, was  to  found  a  commercial  empire.  The 
mercenary  spirit,  as  we  learn  from  prophets  earlier 
than  Isaiah,  had  begun  also  to  leaven  the  life  of  the 


xxiii.]        TYRE;  OR,    THE  MERCENARY  SPIRIT.  2S9 

agricultural  and  shepherd  tribes  of  Western  Asia. 
For  good  or  for  evil  commerce  had  established  itself  as 
a  moral  force  in  the  world.  Isaiah's  chapter  on  Tyre 
is,  therefore,  of  the  greatest  interest.  It  contains  the 
prophet's  vision  of  commerce  the  first  time  commerce 
had  grown  vast  enough  to  impress  his  people's  imagi- 
nation, as  well  as  a  criticism  of  the  temper  of  commerce 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  religion  of  the  God  of  right- 
eousness. Whether  as  a  historical  study  or  a  message 
addressed  to  the  mercantile  tempers  of  our  own  day, 
the  chapter  is  worthy  of  close  attention. 

But  we  must  first  impress  ourselves  with  the  utter 
contrast  between  Phosnicia  and  Judah  in  the  matter  of 
commercial  experience,  or  we  shall  not  feel  the  full 
force  of  this  excursion  which  the  prophet  of  a  high, 
inland  tribe  of  shepherds  makes  among  the  wharves 
and  warehouses  of  the  great  merchant  city  on  the 
sea. 

The  Phoenician  empire,  it  has  often  been  remarked, 
presents  a  very  close  analogy  to  that  of  Great  Britain ; 
but  even  more  entirely  than  in  the  case  of  Great 
Britain  the  glory  of  that  empire  was  the  wealth  of  its 
trade,  and  the  character  of  the  people  was  the  result 
of  their  mercantile  habits.  A  little  strip  of  land,  one 
hundred  and  forty  miles  long,  and  never  more  than 
fifteen  broad,  with  the  sea  upon  one  side  and  the 
mountains  upon  the  other,  compelled  its  inhabitants  to 
become  miners  and  seamen.  The  hills  shut  off  the 
narrow  coast  from  the  continent  to  which  it  belongs, 
and  drove  the  increasing  populations  to  seek  their 
destiny  by  way  of  the  sea.  These  took  to  it  kindly, 
for  they  had  the  Semite's  born  instinct  for  trading. 
Planting  their  colonies  all  round  the  Mediterranean, 
exploiting  every  mine   within  reach  of  the  coastland, 

VOL.    I.  19 


200  THE  BOOK  OF  IS  AT  ATT. 

establishing  great  trading  depots  both  on  the  Nile  and 
the  Euphrates,  with  fleets  that  passed  the  Straits  of 
Gibraltar  into  the  Atlantic  and  the  Straits  of  Bab-el- 
Mandeb  into  the  Indian  Ocean,  the  Phoenicians  con- 
structed a  system  of  trade,  which  was  not  exceeded 
in  range  or  influence  till,  more  than  two  thousand 
years  later,  Portugal  made  the  discovery  of  America 
and  accomplished  the  passage  of  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope.  From  the  coasts  of  Britain  to  those  of  North- 
west India,  and  probably  to  Madagascar,  was  the  extent 
of  Phoenician  credit  and  currency.  Their  trade  tapped 
river  basins  so  far  apart  as  those  of  the  Indus,  the 
Euphrates,  probably  the  Zambesi,  the  Nile,  the  Rhone, 
the  Guadalquivir.  They  built  ships  and  harbours  for 
the  Pharaohs  and  for  Solomon.  They  carried  Egyptian 
art  and  Babylonian  knowledge  to  the  Grecian  archi- 
pelago, and  brought  back  the  metals  of  Spain  and 
Britain.  No  wonder  the  prophet  breaks  into  enthusiasm 
as  he  surve3-s  Phoenician  enterprise !  And  on  great 
waters  tJte  seed  of  Sliihor,  the  Jiarvcst  of  the  Nile,  was  her 
revenue;  and  she  was  the  mart  of  nations. 

But  upon  trade  the  Phoenicians  had  built  an  empire. 
At  home  their  political  life  enjoyed  the  freedom,  energy 
and  resources  which  are  supplied  by  long  habits  of 
an  extended  commerce  with  other  peoples.  The  con- 
stitution of  the  different  Phoenician  cities  was  not,  as  is 
Rometimes  supposed,  republican,  but  monarchical ;  and 
the  land  belonged  to  the  king.  Yet  the  large  number 
of  wealthy  families  at  once  limited  the  power  of  the 
throne,  and  saved  the  commonwealth  from  being 
dependent  upon  the  fortunes  of  a  single  dynasty.  The 
colonies  in  close  relation  with  the  mother  country 
assured  an  empire  with  its  life  \\\  better  circulation 
and  with  more  reserve  of  pov  or  than  either  Egypt  or 


xxiii.]        TYRE;   OR,    THE  MERCENARY  SPIRIT.  291 

Assyria.  Tyre  and  Sidon  were  frequently  overthrown, 
but  they  rose  again  oftener  than  the  other  great  cities 
of  antiquity,  and  were  still  places  of  importance  when 
Babylon  and  Nineveh  lay  in  irreparable  ruin.  Besides 
their  native  families  of  royal  wealth  and  influence  and 
their  flourishing  colonies,  each  with  its  prince,  these 
commercial  States  kept  foreign  monarchs  in  their  pay, 
and  sometimes  determined  the  fate  of  a  dynasty. 
Isaiah  entitles  Tyre  the  giver  oj  crowns,  the  maker  of 
kings,  whose  merchants  are  princes,  and  her  traffickers  are 
the  honourable  of  the  earth. 

But  trade  with  political  results  so  splendid  had 
an  evil  effect  upon  the  character  and  spiritual  temper 
of  the  people.  By  the  indiscriminating  ancients  the 
Phoenicians  were  praised  as  inventors ;  the  rudiments 
of  most  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  of  the  alphabet  and 
of  money  have  been  ascribed  to  them.  But  modern 
research  has  proved  that  of  none  of  tiie  many  elements 
of  civilisation  which  they  introduced  to  the  West  were 
they  the  actual  authors.  The  Phoenicians  were  simply 
carriers  and  middlemen.  In  all  time  there  is  no  instance 
of  a  nation  so  wholly  given  over  to  buying  and  selling, 
who  frequented  even  the  battlefields  of  the  world  that 
they  might  strip  the  dead  and  purchase  the  captive. 
Phoenician  history — though  we  must  always  do  the 
people  the  justice  to  remember  that  we  have  their  history 
only  in  fragments — affords  few  signs  of  the  conscious- 
ness that  there  are  things  which  a  nation  may  strive 
after  for  their  own  sake,  and  not  for  the  money  they 
bring  in.  The  world,  which  other  peoples,  still  in  the 
reverence  of  the  religious  3'outh  of  the  race,  regarded 
as  a  house  of  prayer,  the  Phoenicians  had  already 
turned  into  a  den  of  thieves.  They  trafficked  even  with 
the  mysteries  and  intelligences  ;  and  their  own  religion 


292  THE  BOOK  OF  ISA  I  AH. 

is  largely  a  mixture  of  the  religions  of  the  other  peoples, 
with  whom  they  came  into  contact.  The  national  spirit 
was  venal  and  mercenary — the  heart  of  an  hireling, 
or,  as  Isaiah  by  a  baser  name  describes  it,  the  heart 
of  a7i  harlot.  There  is  not  throughout  history  a  more 
perfect  incarnation  of  the  mercenary  spirit  than  the 
Phoenician  nation. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  the  experience  of  the  Jews,  whose 
faith  had  to  face  and  account  for  this  world-force. 

The  history  of  the  Jews  in  Europe  has  so  identified 
them  with  trade  that  it  is  difficult  for  us  to  imagine  a 
jew  free  from  its  spirit  or  ignorant  of  its  methods.  But 
the  fact  is  that  in  the  time  of  Isaiah  Israel  was  as  little 
acquainted  with  commerce  as  it  is  possible  for  a  civilised 
nation  to  be.  Israel's  was  an  inland  territory.  Till 
Solomon's  reign  the  people  had  neither  navy  nor  harbour. 
Their  land  was  not  abundant  in  materials  for  trade — 
it  contained  almost  no  minerals,  and  did  not  produce  a 
greater  supply  of  food  than  was  necessary  for  the  con- 
sumption of  its  inhabitants.  It  is  true  that  the  ambition  of 
Solomon  had  brought  the  people  within  the  temptations 
of  commerce.  He  established  trading  cities,  annexed 
harbours  and  hired  a  navy.  But  even  then,  and  again 
in  the  reign  of  Uzziali,  which  reflects  much  of  Solomon's 
commercial  glory,  Israel  traded  by  deputies,  and  the 
mass  of  the  people  remained  innocent  of  mercantile 
habits.  Perhaps  to  moderns  the  most  impressive  proof 
of  how  little  Israel  had  to  do  with  trade  is  to  be  found 
in  their  laws  of  money-lending  and  of  interest.  The 
absolute  prohibition  which  Moses  placed  upon  the 
charging  of  interest  could  only  have  been  possible 
among  a  people  with  the  most  insignificant  commerce. 
To  Isaiah  himself  commerce  must  have  appeared  alien. 
Human  life,  as   he    pictures    it,  is    composed    of  w^ar. 


xxiii.]         TYRE;   OR,    THE  MERCENARY  SPIRIT.  293 

politics  and  agriculture ;  his  ideals  for  society  are 
those  of  the  shepherd  and  the  farmer.  We  moderns 
cannot  dissociate  the  future  welfare  of  humanity  from 
the  triumphs  of  trade. 

"  For  I  dipt  into  the  future,  far  as  human  eye  could  see, 
Saw  the  vision  of  the  world  and  all  the  wonder  that  would  be  ; 
Saw  the  heavens  fill  with  commerce,  argosies  of  magic  sails, 
Pilots  of  the  purple  twilight,  dropping  down  with  costly  bales." 

But  all  Isaiah's  future  is  full  of  gardens  and  busy 
fields,  of  irrigating  rivers  and  canals  : — 

Until  the  Spirit  be  poured  upon  us  from  on  high,  and 
the  wilderness  become  ajruitful  field,  and  the  fruitful  field 
be  counted  for  a  forest.  .  .  .  Blessed  are  ye,  that  sow  beside 
all  waters,  that  send  Jorth  the  feet  of  the  ox  and  the  ass. 

And  He  shall  give  the  rain  of  thy  seed,  that  thou  shall 
soiv  the  ground  withal,  and  bread-corn,  the  increase  of 
the  ground;  and  it  shall  be  juicy  and  fat :  in  that  day 
shall  thy  cattle  feed  in  large  pastures. 

Conceive  how  trade  looked  to  eyes  which  dwelt 
with  enthusiasm  upon  scenes  like  these  !  It  must  have 
seemed  to  blast  the  future,  to  disturb  the  regularity  of 
life  with  such  violence  as  to  shake  religion  herself! 
With  all  our  convictions  of  the  benefits  of  trade,  even 
we  feel  no  greater  regret  or  alarm  than  when  we  observe 
the  invasion  by  the  rude  forces  of  trade  of  some  scene 
of  rural  felicity  :  blackening  of  sky  and  earth  and 
stream  ;  increasing  complexity  and  entanglement  of  life ; 
enormous  growth  of  new  problems  and  temptations; 
strange  knowledge,  ambitions  and  passions,  that  throb 
through  life  and  strain  the  tissue  of  its  simple  constitu- 
tion, like  novel  engines,  which  shake  the  ground  and 
the  strong  walls,  accustomed  once  to  re-echo  only  the 
simple  music  of  the  mill-wheel  and  the  weaver's  shuttle. 
Isaiah  did  not  fear  an  invasion  of  Judah  by  the  habits 


294  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

and  the  machines  of  trade.  There  is  no  foreboding  in 
this  chapter  of  the  day  when  his  own  people  were  to 
take  the  place  of  the  Phoenicians  as  the  commercial 
harlots  of  the  world,  and  a  Jew  was  to  be  synonymous 
with  usurer  and  publican.  Yet  we  may  employ  our 
feelings  to  imagine  his,  and  understand  what  this 
prophet — seated  in  the  sanctuary  of  a  pastoral  and 
agricultural  tribe,  with  its  simple  offerings  of  doves, 
and  lambs  and  sheaves  of  corn,  telling  how  their 
homes,  and  fields  and  whole  rustic  manner  of  life  were 
subject  to  God — thought,  and  feared,  and  hoped  of  the 
vast  commerce  of  Phoenicia,  wondering  how  it  also 
should  be  sanctified  to  Jehovah. 

First  of  all,  Isaiah,  as  we  might  have  expected  from 
his  large  faith  and  broad  sympathies,  accepts  and 
acknowledges  this  great  world-force.  His  noble  spirit 
shows  neither  timidity  nor  jealousy  before  it.  Before 
his  view  what  an  unblemished  prospect  of  it  spreads  ! 
His  descriptions  tell  more  of  his  appreciation  than  long- 
laudations  would  have  clone.  He  grows  enthusiastic 
upon  the  grandeur  of  Tyre  ;  and  even  when  he  prophe- 
sies that  Assyria  shall  destroy  it,  it  is  with  the  feeling 
that  such  a  destruction  is  really  a  desecration,  and  as  if 
there  lived  essential  glory  in  great  commercial  enterprise. 
Certainly  from  such  a  spirit  we  have  much  to  learn. 
How  often  has  religion,  when  brought  face  to  face  with 
the  new  forces  of  a  generation — commerce,  democracy 
or  science — shown  either  a  base  timidity  or  baser 
jealousy,  and  met  the  innovations  with  cries  of  detrac- 
tion or  despair !  Isaiah  reads  a  lesson  to  the  modern 
Church  in  the  preliminary  spirit  with  which  she  should 
meet  the  novel  experiences  of  Providence.  Whatever 
judgement  may  afterwards  have  to  be  passed,  there  is 
the  immediate  duty  of  frankly  recognising  greatness  wher- 


xxiii.]         TYRE;   OR,    THE  MERCENARY  SPIRIT.  295 

ever  it  may  occur.  This  is  an  essential  principle,  from 
the  forgetfulness  of  which  modern  religion  has  suffered 
much.  Nothing  is  gained  by  attempting  to  minimise 
new  departures  in  the  world's  history ;  but  everything 
is  lost  if  we  sit  down  in  fear  of  them.  It  is  a  duty 
we  owe  to  ourselves,  and  a  worship  which  Providence 
demands  from  us,  that  we  ungrudgingly  appreciate  every 
magnitude  of  which  history  brings  us  the  knowledge. 

It  is  almost  an  unnecessary  task  to  apply  Isaiah's 
meaning  to  the  commerce  of  our  own  day.  But  let  us 
not  miss  his  example  in  this :  that  the  right  to  criticise 
the  habits  of  trade  and  the  ability  to  criticise  them 
healthily  are  alone  won  by  a  just  appreciation  of  trade's 
world-wide  glory  and  serviceableness.  There  is  no  use 
preaching  against  the  venal  spirit  and  manifold  temp- 
tations and  degradations  of  trade,  until  we  have  realised 
the  indispensableness  of  trade  and  its  capacity  for  disci- 
plining and  exalting  its  ministers.  The  only  way  to  cor- 
rect the  abuses  of  "  the  commercial  spirit,"  against  which 
many  in  our  day  are  loud  with  indiscriminate  rebuke, 
is  to  impress  its  victims,  having  first  impressed  yourself, 
with  the  opportunities  and  the  ideals  of  commerce.  A 
thing  is  great  partly  by  its  traditions  and  partly  by  its 
opportunities — partly  by  what  it  has  accomplished  and 
partly  by  the  doors  of  serviceableness  of  which  it  holds 
the  key.  By  either  of  these  standards  the  magnitude 
of  commerce  is  simply  overwhelming.  Having  dis- 
covered the  world-furces,  commerce  has  built  thereon 
the  most  powerful  of  our  modern  empires.  Its  exi- 
gencies compel  peace  ;  its  resources  are  the  sinews  oi 
war.  If  it  has  not  always  preceded  religion  and  science 
in  the  conquest  of  the  globe,  it  has  shared  with  thei.i 
their  triumphs.  Commerce  has  recast  the  modern  worla, 
so  that  we  hardly  think  of  the  old  national  divisions  ii\ 


296  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

the  greater  social  classes  which  have  been  its  direct 
creation.  Commerce  determines  national  policies ;  its 
markets  are  among  the  schools  of  statesmen  ;  its 
merchants  are  still  princes,  and  its  traffickers  the  honour- 
able of  the  earth. 

Therefore  let  all  merchants  and  their  apprentices 
believe,  "  Here  is  something  worth  putting  our  man- 
hood into,  worth  living  for,  not  with  our  brains  only 
or  our  appetites,  but  with  our  conscience,  with  our 
imagination,  with  every  curiosity  and  sympathy  of  our 
nature.  Here  is  a  calling  with  a  healthy  discipline, 
with  a  free  spirit,  with  unrivalled  opportunities  of 
service,  with  an  ancient  and  essential  dignity."  The 
reproach  which  is  so  largely  imagined  upon  trade  is  the 
relic  of  a  barbarous  age.  Do  not  tolerate  it,  for  under 
its  shadow,  as  under  other  artificial  and  unhealthy 
contempts  of  society,  there  are  apt  to  grow  up  those 
sordid  and  slavish  tempers,  which  scon  make  men 
deserve  the  reproach  that  was  at  first  unjustly  cast  upon 
them.  Dissipate  the  base  influence  of  this  reproach  by 
lifting  the  imagination  upon  the  antiquity  and  world- 
wide opportunities  of  trade — trade,  ivJiose  origin,  as 
Isaiah  so  finely  puts  it,  is  of  ancient  days;  and  her  feet 
carry  her  afar  off  to  sojourn. 

So  generous  an  appreciation  of  the  grandeur  of 
commerce  does  not  prevent  Isaiah  from  exposing  its 
besetting  sin  and  degradation. 

The  vocation  of  a  merchant  differs  from  others  in  this, 
that  there  is  no  inherent  nor  instinctive  obligation  in  it 
to  ends  higher  than  those  of  financial  profit — emphasized 
in  our  days  into  the  more  dangerous  constraint  of 
immediate  financial  profit.  No  profession  is  of  course 
absolutely  free  from  the  risk  of  this  servitude ;  but  other 
professions  offer  escapes,  or  at  least  mitigations,  which 


xxiii.]         TYRE;   OR,    THE  MERCENARY  SPIRIT.  297 

are  not  possible  to  nearly  the  same  extent  in  trade. 
Artist,  artisan,  preacher  and  statesman  have  ideals 
which  generally  act  contrary  to  the  compulsion  of  profit 
and  tend  to  create  a  nobility  of  mind  strong  enough  to 
defy  it.  They  have  given,  so  to  speak,  hostages  to 
heaven — ideals  of  beauty,  of  accurate  scholarship  or  of 
moral  influence,  which  they  dare  not  risk  by  abandon- 
ing themselves  to  the  hunt  for  gain.  But  the  calling 
of  a  merchant  is  not  thus  safeguarded.  It  does  not  afford 
those  visions,  those  occasions  of  being  caught  away  to  the 
heavens,  which  are  the  inherent  glories  of  other  lives. 
The  habits  of  trade  make  this  the  first  thought — not  what 
things  of  beauty  are  in  themselves,  not  what  men  are  as 
brothers,  not  what  life  is  as  God's  discipline,  but  what 
things  of  beauty,  and  men  and  opportunities  are  worth  to 
us — and  in  these  times  what  they  are  iiiuucdiately  worth 
— as  measured  by  money.  In  such  an  absorption  art, 
humanity,  morals  and  religion  become  matters  of  growing 
indifference. 

To  this  spirit,  which  treats  all  things  and  men,  high 
or  low,  as  matters  simply  of  profit,  Isaiah  gives  a  very 
ugly  name.  We  call  it  the  mercenary  or  venal  spirit. 
Isaiah  says  it  is  the  spirit  of  the  harlot. 

The  history  of  Phoenicia  justified  his  words.  To-day 
we  remember  her  by  nothing  that  is  great,  by  nothing 
that  is  original.  She  left  no  art  nor  literature,  and  her 
once  brave  and  skilful  populations  degenerated  till  we 
know  them  only  as  the  slave-dealers,  panders  and  pros- 
titutes of  the  Roman  empire.  If  we  desire  to  find 
Phoenicia's  influence  on  the  religion  of  the  world,  we  have 
to  seek  for  it  among  the  most  sensual  of  Greek  myths  and 
the  abominable  practices  of  Corinthian  worship.  Willi 
such  terrible  literalncsswas  Isaiah's  harlot-curse  fulfilled. 

What  is  true  of  Phoenicia  ma}'  become  true  of  Britain, 


29S  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAII. 


and  what  has  been  seen  on  the  large  scale  of  a  nation 
is  exemplified  every  day  in,  individual  lives.  The  man 
who  is  entirely  eaten  up  with  the  zeal  of  gain  is  no 
better  than  what  Isaiah  called  Tyre.  He  has  prostituted 
himself  to  covetousness.  If  day  and  night  our  thoughts 
are  of  profit,  and  the  habit,  so  easily  engendered  in  these 
times,  of  asking  only,  "What  can  I  make  of  this?"  is 
allowed  to  grow  upon  us,  it  shall  surely  come  to  pass  that 
we  are  found  sacrificing,  like  the  poor  unfortunate,  the 
most  sacred  of  our  endowments  and  affections  for  gain, 
demeaning  our  natures  at  the  feet  of  the  world  for  the 
sake  of  the  world's  gold.  A  woman  sacrifices  her  purity 
for  coin,  and  tne  world  casts  her  out.  But  some  who 
would  not  touch  her  have  sacrificed  honour  and  love 
and  pity  for  the  same  base  wage,  and  in  God's  sight  are 
no  better  than  she.  Ah,  how  much  need  is  there  for 
these  bold,  brutal  standards  of  the  Hebrew  propliet  to 
correct  cur  own  social  misappreciations  ! 

Now  for  a  very  vam  delusion  upon  this  subject !  It 
is  often  imagined  in  our  day  that  if  a  man  seek  atone- 
ment for  the  veual  spirit  through  the  study  of  art, » 
through  the  practice  of  philanthropy  or  through  the 
cultivation  of  religion,  he  shall  surely  find  it.  This  is 
false — plausible  and  often  practised  but  utterly  false. 
Unless  a  man  see  and  reverence  beauty  in  the  very 
workshop  and  office  of  his  business,  unless  he  feel  those 
whom  he  meets  there,  his  employes  and  customers, 
as  his  brethren,  unless  he  keep  his  business  methods 
free  from  fraud,  and  honestly  recognise  his  gains 
as  a  trust  from  the  Lord,  then  no  amount  of  de- 
votion elsewhere  to  the  fine  arts,  nor  perseverance  in 
pliila^.thropy,  nor  fondness  for  the  Church  evinced  by 
ever  so  large  subscriptions,  will  deliver  him  from  the 
devil  of  mercenariness.    That  is  a  plea  of  alibi  that  shall 


xxiii.]         TYRE;   OR,    THE  MERCENARY  SPIRIT.  299 

not  prevail  on  the  judgement  day.  He  is  only  living 
a  double  life,  whereof  his  art,  philanthropy  or  religion 
is  the  occasional  and  dilettante  portion,  with  not  nearly 
so  much  influence  on  his  character  as  the  other,  his 
calling  and  business,  in  which  he  still  sacrifices  love 
to  gain.  His  real  world — the  world  in  which  God 
set  him,  to  buy  and  sell  indeed,  but  also  to  serve  and 
glorify  his  God — he  is  treating  only  as  a  big  ware- 
house and  exchange.  And  so  much  is  this  the  case 
at  the  present  day,  in  spite  of  all  the  worship  of  art 
and  religion  which  is  fashionable  in  mercantile  circles, 
that  we  do  not  go  too  far  when  we  say  that  if  Jesus 
were  now  to  visit  our  large  markets  and  manu- 
factories, in  which  the  close  intercourse  of  numbers 
of  human  persons  renders  the  opportunities  of  service 
and  testimony  to  God  so  frequent.  He  would  scourge 
men  from  them,  as  He  scourged  the  traffickers  of  the 
Temple,  for  that  they  had  forgotten  that  here  was  their 
Father's  house,  where  their  brethren  had  to  be  owned 
and  helped,  and  their  Father's  glory  revealed  to  the  world. 

A  nation  with  such  a  spirit  was  of  course  foredoomed 
to  destruction.  Isaiah  predicts  the  absolute  disappear- 
ance of  Tyre  from  the  attention  of  the  world.  Tyre 
shall  be  forgotten  seventy  years.  Then,  like  some  poor 
unfortunate  whose  day  of  beauty  is  past,  she  shall  in 
vain  practise  her  old  advertisements  on  men.  After  the 
end  of  seventy  years  it  shall  be  unto  Tyre  as  in  the  song 
of  the  harlot:  Take  an  harp,  go  about  the  city,  thou 
harlot  that  hast  been  forgotten ;  make  sweet  melody,  sing 
many  songs,  that  thou  mayest  be  remembered. 

But  Commerce  is  essential  to  the  world.  Tyre  must 
revive ;  and  the  prophet  sees  her  revive  as  the  minister 
of  Religion,  the  purveyor  of  the  food  of  the  servants  of 
the  Lord,  and  of  the  accessories  of  their  worship.     It 


300  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

must  be  confessed,  that  we  are  not  a  little  shocked  when 
we  find  Isaiah  continuing  to  apply  to  Commerce  his 
metaphor  of  a  harlot,  even  after  Commerce  has  entered 
the  service  of  the  true  religion.  He  speaks  of  her 
wages  being  devoted  to  Jehovah,  just  in  the  same 
manner  as  those  of  certain  notorious  women  of  heathen 
temples  were  devoted  to  the  idol  of  the  temple.  This 
is  even  against  the  directions  of  the  Mosaic  law.  Isaiah, 
however,  was  a  poet ;  and  in  his  flights  we  must  not 
expect  him  to  carry  the  whole  Law  on  his  back.  He 
was  a  poet,  and  probably  no  analogy  would  have  more 
vividly  appealed  to  his  Oriental  audience.  It  will  be 
foolish  to  allow  our  natural  prejudice  against  what  we  may 
feel  to  be  the  unhealthiness  of  the  metaphor  to  blind  us 
to  the  magnificence  of  the  thought  which  he  clothes  in  it. 
All  this  is  another  proof  of  the  sanity  and  far  sight 
of  our  prophet.  Again  we  find  that  his  conviction 
that  judgement  is  coming  does  not  render  his  spirit 
morbid,  nor  disturb  his  eye  for  things  of  beauty  and 
profit  in  the  world.  Commerce,  with  all  her  faults, 
is  essential,  and  must  endure,  nay  shall  prove  in  the  days 
to  come  Religion's  most  profitable  minister.  The  gene- 
rosity and  wisdom  of  this  passage  are  the  more  striking 
when  we  remember  the  extremity  of  unrelieved  denun- 
ciation to  which  other  great  teachers  of  religion  have 
allowed  themselves  to  be  hurled  by  their  rage  against  the 
sins  of  trade.  But  Isaiah,  in  the  largest  sense  of  the 
expression,  is  a  man  of  the  world — a  man  of  the  world 
because  God  made  the  world  and  rules  it.  Yet  even 
from  his  far  sight  was  hidden  the  length  to  which  in  the 
last  days  Commerce  would  carry  her  services  to  man 
and  God,  proving  as  she  has  done,  under  the  flag  of 
another  Phoenicia,  to  all  the  extent  of  Isaiah's  longing, 
one  of  Religion's  most  sincere  and  profitable  handmaids. 


BOOK    IV. 
JERUSALEM  AND  SENNACHERIB,  701   B.C. 


Isaiah  : — 

xxxvi.  I.  Early  in  70I. 

^  r»  f 

xxii.  „ 

xxxiii.  A  little  later. 

xxxvi.  2 — xxxvii,    ,,  „ 


xxxviii. — xxxix.  Date  uncertsia. 


BOOK  IV. 

INTO  this  fourth  book  we  put  all  the  rest  of  the  pro- 
phecies of  the  Book  of  Isaiah,  that  have  to  do  with 
the  prophet's  own  time  :  chaps,  i.,  xxii.  and  xxxiii.,  with 
the  narrative  in  xxxvi.,  xxxvii.  All  these  refer  to  the 
only  Assyrian  invasion  of  Judah  and  siege  of  Jerusalem  : 
that  undertaken  by  Sennacherib  in  701. 

It  is,  however,  right  to  remember  once  more,  that 
many  authorities  maintain  that  there  were  two  Assyrian 
invasions  of  Judah — one  by  Sargon  in  71 1,  the  other  by 
Sennacherib  in  701 — and  that  chaps,  i.  and  xxii.  (as  well 
as  X.  5 — 34)  belong  to  the  former  of  these.  The  theory 
is  ingenious  and  tempting ;  but,  in  the  silence  of  the 
Assyrian  annals  about  any  invasion  of  Judah  by  Sargon, 
it  is  impossible  to  adopt  it.  And  although  chaps,  i. 
and  xxii.  differ  very  greatly  in  tone  from  chap,  xxxiii., 
yet  to  account  for  the  difference  it  is  not  necessary  to 
suppose  two  different  invasions,  with  a  considerable 
period  between  them.  Virtually,  as  will  appear  in  the 
course  of  our  exposition,  Sennacherib's  invasion  of 
Judah  was  a  double  one. 

I.  The  first  time  Sennacherib's  army  invaded  Judah 
they  took  all  the  fenced  cities,  and  probably  invested 
Jerusalem,  but  withdrew  on  payment  of  tribute  and  the 
surrender  of  the  casus  belli,  the  Assyrian  vassal  Padi, 
whom  the  Ekronites  had  deposed  and  given  over  to  the 


304  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

keeping  of  Hezekiah.  To  this  invasion  refei  Tsa.  i., 
xxii.  and  the  first  verse  of  xxxvi.:  Now  it  came,  to  pass 
in  the  fourteenth* year  of  King  Hezckiah  that  Sennacherib, 
King  of  Assyria,  came  up  against  all  the  fenced  cities  of 
JtidaJi  and  took  them.  This  verse  is  the  same  as 
2  Kings  xviii.  13,  to  which,  however,  there  is  added  in 
vv.  14 — 16  an  account  of  the  tribute  sent  by  Hezekiah 
to  Sennacherib  at  Lachish,  that  is  not  included  in  the 
narrative  in  Isaiah.     Compare  2  Chron.  xxxii.  I. 

2.  But  scarcely  had  the  tribute  been  paid  when 
Sennacherib,  himself  advancing  to  meet  Egypt,  sent 
back  upon  Jerusalem  a  second  army  of  investment,  with 
which  was  the  Rabshakeh ;  and  this  was  the  army 
that  so  mysteriously  disappeared  from  the  eyes  of  the 
besieged.  To  the  treacherous  return  of  the  Assyrians 
and  the  sudden  deliverance  of  Jerusalem  from  their 
grasp  refer  Isa.  xxxiii.,  xxxvi.  2 — xxxvii.,  with  the 
fuller  and  evidently  original  narrative  in  2  Kings  xviii. 
17 — xix.     Compare  2  Chron.  xxxii.  9 — 23. 

To  the  history  of  this  double  attempt  upon  Jerusalem 
in  701 — xxxvi.  and  xxxvii. — there  has  been  appended  in 
xxxviii.  and  xxxix.  an  account  of  Hezekiah's  illness  and 
of  an  embassy  to  him  from  Babylon.  These  events 
probably  happened  some  years  before  Sennacherib's 
invasion.     But  it  will  be  most  convenient  for  us  to  take 


*  It  is  confusing  to'find  tliis  date  attached  to  Sennacherib's  invasion 
of  701,  unless,  with  one  or  two  critics,  we  place  Hezekiah's  accession 
in  715.  But  Hezekiah  acceded  in  728  or  727,  and  701  would  therefore 
be  his  twenty-sixth  or  twenty-seventh  year.  Mr.  Cheyne,  who  takes 
727  as  the  year  of  Hezekiah's  accession,  gets  out  of  the  difficulty  by 
reading  "  Sargon  "  for  "Sennacherib"  in  this  verse  and  in  2  Kings 
xiii.,  and  thus  secures  another  reference  to  that  invasion  of  Judah, 
which  he  supposes  to  have  taken  place  under  Sargon  between  712 
and  710.  By  the  change  of  a  letter  some  would  read  twenty-fourth  for 
fourteenth.     But  in  any  case  this  date  is  confusing. 


BOOK  IV.,    701    B.C.  305 

them  in  the  order  in  which  they  stand  in  the  canon. 
They  will  naturally  lead  us  up  to  a  question  that  it  is 
necessary  we  should  discuss  before  taking  leave  of 
Isaiah — whether  this  great  prophet  of  the  endurance  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  upon  earth  had  any  gospel  for  the 
individual  who  dropped  away  from  it  into  death. 


VOL.    I.  ,Q 


I 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

AT  THE   LOWEST  EBB. 
Isaiah  i.  and  xxii.   (701   B.C.). 

N  the  drama  of  Isaiah's  Hfe  we  have  now  arrived 
at  the  final  act — a  short  and  sharp  one  of  a  few 
months.  The  time  is  701  b.c,  the  fortietli  year 
of  Isaiah's  ministry,  and  about  the  twenty-sixth  of 
Hezekiah's  reign.  The  background  is  the  invasion 
of  Palestine  by  Sennacherib.  The  stage  itself  is  the 
city  of  Jerusalem.  In  the  clear  atmosphere  before 
the  bursting  of  the  storm  Isaiah  has  looked  round 
the  whole  world — his  world — uttering  oracles  on  the 
nations  from  Tyre  to  Egypt  and  from  Ethiopia  to 
Babylon.  But  now  the  Assyrian  storm  has  burst,  and 
all  except  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  the  prophet 
is  obscured.  From  Jerusalem  Isaiah  will  not  agam  lift 
his  eyes. 

The  stage  is  thus  narrow  and  the  time  short,  but  the 
action  one  of  the  most  critical  in  the  history  of  Israel, 
taking  rank  with  the  Exodus  from  Egypt  and  the  Return 
from  Babylon.  To  Isaiah  himself  it  marks  the  summit 
ot  his  career.  For  half  a  century  Zion  has  been  pre- 
paring for,  forgetting  and  again  preparing  for,  her  first 
and  final  struggle  with  the  Assyrian.  Now  she  is  to 
meet  her  foe,  face  to  face  across  her  own  walls.  For 
forty  years  Isaiah   has  predicted  for   the  Assyrian  an 


i.  and  xxii.]  AT   THE   LOWEST   EBB.  307 

uninterrupted  path  of  conquest  to  the  very  gates  of 
Jerusalem,  but  certain  check  and  confusion  there. 
Sennacherib  has  overrun  the  world,  and  leaps  upon 
Zion.  The  Jewish  nation  avv^ait  their  fate,  Isaiah  his 
vindication,  and  the  credit  of  Israel's  religion,  one  of 
the  most  extraordinary  tests  to  which  a  spiritual  faith 
was  ever  subjected. 

In  the  end,  by  the  mysterious  disappearance  of  the 
Assyrian,  Jerusalem  was  saved,  the  prophet  was  left 
with  his  remnant  and  the  future  still  open  for  Israel. 
But  at  the  beginning  of  the  end  such  an  issue  was  by 
no  means  probable.  Jewish  panic  and  profligacy 
almost  prevented  the  Divine  purpose,  and  Isaiah  went 
near  to  breaking  his  heart  over  the  city,  for  whose  re- 
demption he  had  travailed  for  a  lifetime.  He  was  as  sure 
as  ever  that  this  redemption  must  come,  but  a  collapse 
of  the  people's  faith  and  patriotism  at  the  eleventh  hour 
made  its  coming  seem  worthless.  Jerusalem  appeared 
bent  on  forestalling  her  deliverance  by  moral  suicide. 
Despair,  not  of  God  but  of  the  city,  settled  on  Isaiah's 
heart ;  and  in  such  a  mood  he  wrote  chap.  xxii.  We 
may  entitle  it  therefore,  though  written  at  a  time  when 
the  tide  should  have  been  running  to  the  full,  "At  the 
Lowest  Ebb." 

We  have  thus  stated  at  the  outset  the  motive  of  this 
chapter,  because  it  is  one  of  the  most  unexpected  and 
startling  of  all  Isaiah's  prophecies.  In  it  "  we  can 
discern  precipices."  Beneath  our  eyes,  long  lifted  by  the 
prophet  to  bth-^ld  a  future  stretching  very  far  forth,  this 
chapter  suddenly  yawns,  a  pit  of  blackness.  For  utter- 
ness  of  despair  and  the  absolute  sentence  which  it  passes 
on  the  citizens  of  Zion  we  have  had  nothing  like  it 
from  Isaiah  since  the  evil  days  of  Ahaz.  The  historical 
poi  tions  of  the  Bible  which  cover  this  period  are  not  cleft 


3o8  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

by  such  a  crevasse,  and  of  course  the  official  Assyrian 
annals,  full  as  they  are  of  the  details  of  Sennacherib's 
campaign  in  Palestine,  know  nothing  of  the  moral 
condition  of  Jerusalem.*  Yet  if  we  put  the  Hebrew 
and  Assyrian  narratives  together,  and  compare  them 
with  chaps,  i.  and  xxii.  of  Isaiah,  we  may  be  sure 
that  the  following  was  something  like  the  crurse  of 
events  which  led  down  to  this  woeful  depth  in  Judah's 
experience. 

In  a  Syrian  campaign  Sennacherib's  path  was  plain 
— to  begin  with  the  Phoenician  cities,  march  quickly 
south  by  the  level  coastland,  subduing  the  petty 
chieftains  upon  it,  meet  Egypt  at  its  southern  end, 
and  then,  when  he  had  rid  himself  of  his  only  for- 
midable foe,  turn  to  the  more  delicate  task  of  warfare 
among  the  hills  of  Judah — a  campaign  which  he  could 
scarcely  undertake  with  a  hostile  force  like  Egypt  on 
his  flank.  This  course,  he  tells  us,  he  followed.  "  In 
my  third  campaign,  to  the  land  of  Syria  I  went. 
Luliah  (Elulaeus),  King  of  Sidon — for  the  fearful  splen- 
dour of  my  majesty  overwhelmed  him — fled  to  a 
distant  spot  in  the  midst  of  the  sea.  His  land  I 
entered."  City  after  city  fell  to  the  invader.  The 
princes  of  Aradus,  Byblus  and  Ashdod,  by  the  coast, 
and  even  Moab  and  Edom,  far  inland,  sent  him 
their  submission.  He  attacked  Ascalon,  and  captured 
its  king.  He  went  on,  and  took  the  Philistine  cities  of 
Beth-dagon,  Joppa,  Barka  and  Azor,  all  of  them 
within  forty  miles  of  Jerusalem,  and  some  even  visible 
from  her  neighbourhood.  South  of  this  group,  and  a  little 
over  twenty-five  miles  from  Jerusalem,  lay  Ekron ;  and 


*  Records  of  the  Past,  i.  33  ff.  vii. ;  Schrader's  Cuneiform  Inscrip- 
tions and  the  Old  Toflament  (Whitehouse's  translaticn). 


i.  and  xxii.]  AT  THE  LOWEST  EBB  309 

here  Sennacherib  had  so  good  a  reason  for  anger,  that 
the  inhabitants,  expecting  no  mercy  at  his  hands,  pre- 
pared a  stubborn  defence. 

Ten  years  before  this  Sargon  had  set  Padi,  a  vassal 
of  his  own,  as  king  over  Ekron  ;  but  the  Ekronites  had 
risen  against  Padi,  put  him  in  chains,  and  sent  him  to 
their  ally  Hezekiah,  who  now  held  him  in  Jerusalem. 
"  These  men,"  says  Sennacherib,  "  were  now  terrified 
in  their  hearts  ;  the  shadows  of  death  overwhelmed 
them."*  Before  Ekron  was  reduced,  however,  the 
Egyptian  army  arrived  in  Philistia,  and  Sennacherib 
had  to  abandon  the  siege  for  these  arch-enemies.  He 
defeated  them  in  the  neighbourhood,  at  Eltekeh,  re- 
turned to  Ekron,  and  completed  its  siege.  Then,  while 
he  himself  advanced  southwards  in  pursuit  of  the 
Egyptians,  he  detached  a  corps,  which,  marching  east- 
wards through  the  mountain  passes,  overran  all  Judah 
and  threatened  Jerusalem.  "And  Hezekiah,  King  of 
Judah,  who  had  not  bowed  down  at  my  feet,  forty-six 
of  his  strong  cities,  his  castles  and  the  smaller  towns 
in  their  neighbourhood  beyond  number,  by  casting 
down  ramparts  and  by  open  attack,  by  battle — zuk,  of 
the  feet ;  nisi,  hewing  to  pieces  and  casting  down  (?) — 
I  besieged,  I  captured.  .  .  .  He  himself,  like  a  bird  in  a 
cage,  inside  Jerusalem,  his  royal  city,  I  shut  him  up ; 
siege-towers  against  him  I  constructed,  for  he  had 
given  command  to  renew  the  bulwarks  of  the  great 
gate  of  his  city."t  But  Sennacherib  docs  not  say  that 
he  took  Jerusalem,  and  simply  closes  the  narrative  of 
his  campaign  with  the  account  of  large  tribute  which 
Hezekiah  sent  after  him  to  Nmeveh. 


*  Records  of  the  Past,  i.  38  ;   vii.  62. 
t  Ibid.,  i.,  40;   Schrader,  i.,  286. 


310  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

Here,  then,  we  have  material  for  a  graphic  picture  of 
Jerusalem  and  her  populace,  when  chaps,  i.  and  xxii. 
were  uttered  by  Isaiah. 

At  Jerusalem  we  are  within  a  day's  journey  of  any 
part  of  the  territory  of  Judah.  We  feel  the  kingdom 
throb  to  its  centre  at  Assyria's  first  footfall  on  tlie 
border.  The  nation's  life  is  shuddering  in  upon  its 
capital,  couriers  dashing  up  with  the  first  news ; 
fugitives  hard  upon  them  ;  palace,  arsenal,  market  and 
temple  thrown  into  commotion  ;  the  poHticians  busy  ; 
the  engineers  hard  at  work  completing  the  fortifica- 
tions, leading  the  suburban  wells  to  a  reservoir  within 
the  walls,  levelling  every  house  and  tree  outside  which 
could  give  shelter  to  the  besiegers,  and  heaping  up  the 
material  on  the  ramparts,  till  there  lies  nothing  but 
a  great,  bare,  waterless  circle  round  a  high-banked 
fortress.  Across  this  bareness  the  Hues  of  fugitives 
streaming  to  the  gates  ;  provincial  officials  and  their 
retinues ;  soldiers  whom  Hezekiah  had  sent  out  to 
meet  the  foe,  returning  without  even  the  dignity  of 
defeat  upon  them ;  husbandmen,  with  cattle  and  rem- 
nants of  grain  in  disorder  ;  women  and  children ;  the 
knaves,  cowards  and  helpless  of  the  whole  kingdom 
pouring  their  fear,  dissoluteness  and  disease  into  the 
already-unsettled  populace  of  Jerusalem.  Inside  the 
Avails  opposing  political  factions  and  a  weak  king ; 
idle  crowds,  swaying  to  every  rumour  and  intrigue; 
the  ordinary  restraints  and  regularities  of  life  sus- 
pended, even  patriotism  gone  with  counsel  and  courage, 
but  in  their  place  fear  and  shame  and  greed  of  life. 
Such  was  the  state  in  which  Jerusalem  faced  the  hour 
of  her  visitation. 

Gradually  the  Visitant  came  near  over  the  thirty 
miles  which  lay  between  the  capital  and  the  border. 


i.  and  xxii.]  AT   THE  LOWEST  EBB.  311 

Signs  of  the  Assyrian  advance  were  given  in  the  sky, 
and  night  after  night  the  watchers  on  Mount  Zion, 
seeing  the  glare  in  the  west,  must  have  speculated 
which  of  the  cities  of  Judah  was  being  burned. 
Clouds  of  smoke  across  the  heavens  from  prairie  and 
forest  fires  told  how  war,  even  if  it  passed,  would  leave 
a  trail  of  famine ;  and  men  thought  with  breakug 
hearts  of  the  villages  and  fields,  heritage  of  the  tribes 
of  old,  that  were  now  bare  to  the  foot  and  the  fire 
of  the  foreigner.  Your  country  is  desolate ;  your  cities 
are  burned  with  fire ;  your  land,  strangers  devour  it  in 
your  presence,  and  it  is  desolate  as  the  overthrow  of 
strangers.  And  the  daughter  of  Zion  is  left  as  a  booth 
in  a  vineyard,  as  a  lodge  in  a  garden  of  cucumbers. 
Except  Jehovah  of  hosts  had  left  unto  us  a  very  small 
remnant,  we  should  have  been  as  Sodom,  we  should  have 
been  like  unto  Gomorrah.  *  Then  came  touch  of  the 
enemy,  the  appearance  of  armed  bands,  vistas  down 
Jerusalem's  favourite  valleys  of  chariots,  squadrons 
of  horsemen  emerging  upon  the  plateaus  to  north  and 
west  of  the  city,  heavy  siege- towers  and  swarms  of 
men  innumerable.  And  Elarn  bare  the  quiver,  with 
troops  of  men  and  horsenien;  and  Kir  wtcovercd  the 
shield.  At  last  they  saw  their  fears  of  fifty  years  face 
to  face !  Far-away  names  were  standing  by  their 
gates,  actual  bowmen  and  flashing  shields !  As 
Jerusalem  gazed  upon  the  terrible  Assyrian  armaments, 
how  many  of  her  inhabitants  remembered  Isaiah's 
words  delivered  a  generation  before  ! — Behold,  they  shall 
come  with  speed  swiftly ;  none  shall  be  ivcary  or  stumble 
among  them  ;  neither  shall  the  string  of  their  loins  be  lax 
nor  the  latchet  of  tlicir  shoes  be  broken ;  whose  arrows 

*  Chap.  i.  7—9. 


312  THE  BOOK  OF  ISA  f AH. 

are  shm-p,  and  all  their  bows  bent ;  their  horses^  hoofs 
shall  be  counted  like  flinty  and  their  vohech  like  a  whirl- 
wind; their  roaring  shall  be  like  a  lion  :  they  shall  roar 
like  young  lions.  For  all  this  His  anger  is  not  turned 
away,  but  His  hand  is  stretched  out  still. 

There  were,  however,  two  supports,  on  which  that 
distracted  populace  within  the  walls  still  steadied 
themselves.  The  one  was  the  Tern  pie- worship,  the 
other  the  Egyptian  alliance. 

History  has  many  remarkable  instances  of  peoples 
betaking  themselves  in  the  hour  of  calamity  to  the 
energetic  discharge  of  the  public  rites  of  religion. 
But  such  a  resort  is  seldom,  if  ever,  a  real  moral 
conversion.  It  is  merely  physical  nervousness,  appre- 
hension for  life,  clutching  at  the  one  thing  within  reach 
that  feels  solid,  which  it  abnndons  as  soon  as  panic  has 
passed.  When  the  crowds  in  Jerusalem  betook  them- 
selves to  the  Temple,  with  unwonted  wealth  of  sacrifice, 
Isaiah  denounced  this  as  hypocrisy  and  futility.  To 
what  purpose  is  the  midtitude  of  your  sacrifices  unto  Me  ? 
saith  Jehovah.  .  .  .  I  am  weary  to  bear  them.  And 
when  ye  spread  forth  your  hands,  I  will  hide  Mine  eyes 
from  you;  yea,  when  ye  make  many  prayers,  I  will  not 
hear  (i.  il — 15). 

Isaiah  might  have  spared  his  scornful  orders  to  the 
people  to  desist  from  worship.  Soon  afterwards  they 
abandoned  it  of  their  own  will,  but  from  motives  very 
different  from  those  urged  by  him.  The  second 
support  to  which  Jerusalem  clung  was  the  Egyptian 
alliance — the  pet  project  of  the  party  then  in  power. 
They  had  carried  it  to  a  successful  issue,  taunting 
Isaiah    with    their    success.*      He  had    continued    to 

*  See  p;  238. 


i.  and  xxii.]  j4T   THE  LOWEST  EBB.  313 

denounce  it,  and  now  the  hour  was  approaching  when 
their  cleverness  and  confidence  were  to  be  put  to  the 
test.  It  was  known  in  Jerusalem  that  an  Egyptian 
army  was  advancing  to  Sennacherib,  and  politicians 
and  people  awaited  the  encounter  with  anxiety. 

We  are  aware  what  happened.  Egypt  was  beaten 
at  Eltekeh  ;  the  alliance  was  stamped  a  failure ;  Jeru- 
salem's last  worldly  hope  was  taken  from  her. 
When  the  news  reached  the  city,  something  took  place, 
of  which  our  moral  judgement  tells  us  more  than  any 
actual  record  of  facts.  The  Government  of  Hezekiah 
gave  way ;  the  rulers,  whose  courage  and  patriotism 
had  been  identified  with  the  Egyptian  alliance,  lost  all 
hope  for  their  country,  and  fled,  as  Isaiah  puts  it,  en 
masse  (xxii.  3).  There  was  no  battle,  no  defeat  at 
arms  (Jd.  2,  3) ;  but  the  Jewish  State  collapsed. 

Then,  when  the  last  material  hope  of  Judah  fell,  fell 
her  religion  too.  The  Egyptian  disappointment,  while 
it  drove  the  rulers  out  of  their  false  policies,  drove  the 
people  out  of  their  unreal  worship.  What  had  been  a 
cit^  of  devr  tees  became  in  a  moment  a  city  of  revellers. 
Formerly  ail  had  been  sacrifices  and  worship,  but  now 
feasting  and  blasphemy.  Behold,  joy  and  gladness, 
slaying  oxen  and  killing  sheep,  eating  flesh  and  drinking 
wine :  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die 
{id.  13.    The  reference  of  ver.  12  is  probably  to  chap.  i.). 

Now  all  Isaiah's  ministry  had  been  directed  just  against 
these  two  things  :  the  Egyptian  alliance  and  the  purely 
formal  observance  of  religion — trust  in  the  world  and 
trust  in  religiousness.  And  together  both  of  these 
had  given  way,  and  the  Assyrian  was  at  the  gates. 
Truly  it  was  the  hour  of  Isaiah's  vindication.  Yet — 
and  this  is  the  tragedy— it  had  come  too  late.  The 
prophet  could  not   use  it.       The  two  things  he   said 


3f4  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

would  collapse  had  collapsed,  but  for  the  people  there 
seemed  now  no  help  to  be  justified  from  the  thing  which 
he  said  would  remain.  What  was  the  use  of  the  city's 
deliverance,  when  the  people  themselves  had  failed  ! 
The  feelings  of  triumph,  which  the  prophet  might  have 
expressed,  were  sv/allowed  up  in  unselfish  grief  over 
the  fate  of  his  wayward  and  abandoned  Jerusalem. 

What  ailcth  thee  now — and  in  these  words  we  can 
hear  the  old  man  addressing  his  fickle  child,  whose 
changefulness  by  this  time  he  knew  so  well — what 
aileth  thee  nozv  that  thou  art  ivliolly  gone  up  to  the  house- 
tops— we  see  him  standing  at  his  door  watching  this 
ghastly  holiday — O  thou  that  art  full  of  shoutings,  a 
tumultuous  city,  a  joy  bus  town  ?  What  are  you  rejoicing 
at  in  such  an  hour  as  this,  when  you  have  not  even  the 
bravery  of  your  soldiers  to  celebrate,  when  you  are 
without  that  pride  which  has  brought  songs  from  the 
lips  of  a  defeated  people  as  they  learned  that  their  sons 
had  fallen  with  their  faces  to  the  foe,  and  has  made 
even  the  wounds  of  the  dead  borne  through  the  gate 
lips  of  triumph,  calling  to  festival !  For  thy  slain  are 
not  slain  ivith  the  sword,  neither  are  they  dead  in  battle. 

All  thy  chief s  fled  in  heaps; 

IVifhmd  bow  they  voere  taken  : 
All  thine  that  were  found  were  taken  in  heaps ; 

From  far  had  they  run. 
Wherefore  I  say,  Look  away  Jrom  me  ; 

Let  me  make  Initcrness  bitterer  by  weeping. 
Press  itot  to  comfort  me 

For  the  ruin  of  the  daughJer  of  my  people. 

Urge  not  your  mad  holiday  upon  me  !  For  a  day 
of  discomfiture  and  of  breaking  and  of  perplexity  hath 
the  Lord,  Jehovah  of  hosts,  in    the  ralhy   of  vision,  a 


i.  and  xxii.]  AT  THE  LOlVEST  EBB.  315 

breaking  down  of  t!ic  ivall  and  a  crying  to  the  mountain. 
These  few  words  of  prose,  which  follow  the  pathetic 
elegy,  have  a  finer  pathos  still.  The  cumulative  force 
of  the  successive  clauses  is  very  impressive  :  disap- 
pointment at  the  eleventh  hour;  the  sense  of  a  being 
trampled  and  overborne  by  sheer  brute  force;  the  counsels, 
courage,  hope  and  faith  of  fifty  years  crushed  to  blank 
perplexity,  and  all  this  from  Himself — the  Lord,  Jehovah  of 
hosts — in  the  very  valley  of  vision,  the  home  of  prophecy; 
as  if  He  had  meant  of  purpose  to  destroy  these  long 
confidences  of  the  past  on  the  floor  where  they  had 
been  wrestled  for  and  asserted,  and  not  by  the  force  of 
the  foe,  but  by  the  folly  of  His  own  people,  to  make  them 
ashamed.  The  last  clause  crashes  out  the  effect  of  it 
all ;  every  spiritual  rampart  and  refuge  torn  down,  there 
is  nothing  left  but  an  appeal  to  the  hills  to  fall  and 
cover  us — a  breaking  down  of  the  wall  and  a  crying  to 
the  mountain. 

On  the  brink  of  the  precipice,  Isaiah  draws  back  for 
a  moment,  to  describe  with  some  of  his  old  fire  the 
appearance  of  the  besiegers  (vv.  6 — Sa).  And  this 
suggests  what  kind  of  preparation  Jerusalem  had  made 
for  her  foe — every  kind,  says  Isaiah,  but  the  supreme 
one.  The  arsenal,  Solomon's  forest-house,  with  its  cedar 
pillars,  had  been  looked  to  (ver.  8),  the  fortifications  in- 
spected and  increased,  and  the  suburban  waters  brought 
within  them  (vv.  9 — iia).  But  ye  looked  not  unto  Him 
that  had  done  this,  who  had  brought  this  providence 
upon  you ;  neither  had  ye  respect  unto  Him  that  fashioned 
it  long  ago,  whose  own  plan  it  had  been.  To  your 
alliances  and  fortifications  you  fled  in  the  hour  of 
calamity,  but  not  to  Him  in  whose  guidance  the  course 
of  calamity  lay.  And  therefore,  when  your  engineering 
and  diplomacy  failed  you,  your  religion  vanished  with 


3i6  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


them.  In  that  day  did  the  Lord,  Jehovah  of  hosts,  call  to 
Wfcphig,  and  to  moiirning,  and  to  baldness,  and  to  girding 
with  sackcloth;  but,  behold,  joy  and  gladness,  slaying  oxen 
and  killing  sheep,  eating  Jlesh  and  drinking  wine :  Let  us 
eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  shall  die.  It  was  the 
dropping  of  the  mask.  For  half  a  century  this  people 
had  worshipped  God,  but  they  had  never  trusted  Him 
beyond  the  limits  of  their  treaties  and  their  bulwarks. 
And  so  when  their  allies  were  defeated,  and  their  walls 
began  to  tremble,  their  religion,  bound  up  with  these 
things,  collapsed  also  ;  they  ceased  even  to  be  men, 
;rying  like  beasts.  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow 
we  die.  For  such  a  state  of  mind  Isaiah  will  hold  out 
no  promise;  it  is  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
for  it  there  is  no  forgiveness.  And  Jehovah  of  hosts 
revealed  Himself  in  mine  ears.  Surely  this  iniquity  shall 
not  be  purged  from  you  till  ye  die,  saith  the  Lord,  Jehovah 
of  hosts. 

Back  forty  years  the  word  had  been.  Go  and  tell  this 
people.  Hear  ye  indeed,  but  understand  not;  and  see  ye 
indeed,  but  perceive  not.  Make  the  heart  of  this  people  fat, 
and  make  their  ears  heavy,  and  shut  their  eyes,  lest  they 
see  with  their  eyes,  and  hear  with  their  ears,  and  understand 
liith  their  heart,  and  turn  again  and  be  healed.  What 
happened  now  was  only  what  was  foretold  then :  And 
if  there  be  yet  a  tenth  in  it,  it  shall  again  be  for  consumption. 
That  radical  revision  of  judgement  was  now  being 
literally  fulfilled,  when  Isaiah,  sure  at  last  of  his  remnant 
within  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  was  forced  for  their  sin 
to  condemn  even  them  to  death. 

Nevertheless,  Isaiah  had  still  respect  to  the  ultimate 
survival  of  a  remnant.  How  firmly  he  believed  in  it 
could  not  be  more  clearly  illustrated  than  by  the  fact 


i.  andxxii.]  iT   THE  LOWEST  EBB.  3I7 

that  when  he  had  so  absolutely  devoted  his  fellow- 
citizens  to  destruction  he  also  took  the  most  practical 
means  for  securing  a  better  political  future.  If  there  is 
any  reason,  it  can  only  be  this,  for  putting  the  second 
section  of  chap,  xxii.,  which  advocates  a  change  of 
ministry  in  the  city  (vv.  15 — 22),  so  close  to  the  first, 
which  sees  ahead  nothing  but  destruction  for  the  State 
(vv.  I — 14). 

The  mayor  of  the  palace  at  this  time  was  one  Shebna, 
also  called  minister  or  deputy  (lit.  friend  of  the  king). 
That  his  father  is  not  named  implies  perhaps  that 
Shebna  was  a  foreigner ;  his  own  name  betrays  a  Syrian 
origin  ;  and  he  has  been  justly  supposed  to  be  the  leader 
of  the  party  then  in  power,  whose  policy  was  the 
Egyptian  alliance,  and  whom  in  these  latter  years  Isaiah 
had  so  frequently  denounced  as  the  root  of  Judah's 
bitterness.  To  this  unfamilied  intruder,  who  had  sought 
to  establish  himself  in  Jerusalem,  after  the  manner  of 
those  days,  by  hewing  himself  a  great  sepulchre,  Isaiah 
brought  sentence  of  violent  banishment :  BeJwld,  fchovah 
will  be  hurling,  hurling  thee  away,  thou  big  man,  and 
crumpling,  crumpling  thee  together.  He  will  roll,  roll  thee 
on,  thou  rolling-stone,  like  a  ball  thrown  out  on  broad 
level  ground;  there  shalt  thou  die,  and  there  shall  be  the 
chariots  of  thy  glory,  thou  shame  of  the  house  of  thy  lord. 
And  I  thrust  thee  from  thy  post,  and  from  thy  station  do 
they  pull  thee  down.  This  vagabond  was  not  to  die  in 
his  bed,  nor  to  be  gathered  in  his  big  tomb  to  the  people 
on  whom  he  had  foisted  himself.  He  should  continue 
a  rolling-stone.  For  him,  like  Cain,  there  was  a  land 
of  Nod;  and  upon  it  he  was  to  find  a  vagabond's 
death. 

To  fill  this  upstart's  place,  Isaiah  solemnly  designated 
a  man  with  a  father:  Eliakim,  the  son  of  Hilkiah.     The 


3iS  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

formulas  he  uses  are  perhaps  the  official  ones  custom- 
ary upon  induction  to  an  office.  But  it  may  be 
also,  that  Isaiah  has  woven  into  these  some  expressions 
of  even  greater  promise  than  usual.  For  this  change 
of  office-bearers  was  critical,  and  the  overthrow  of  the 
"  party  of  action  "  meant  to  Isaiah  the  beginning  of 
the  blessed  future.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  that  in 
that  day  I  will  call  My  servant  Eliakim,  the  son  oj 
Hilkiah ;  and  I  will  clothe  him  with  tJiy  robe,  and  with 
thy  girdle  will  I  strengthen  him,  and  thine  administra- 
tion will  1  give  into  his  hand,  and  he  shall  he  for 
a  father  to  the  inhabitant  of  Jerusalem  and  to  the 
house  of  Judah.  And  I  will  set  the  key  of  tJie  house  oJ 
David  upon  his  sliouldcr;  and  he  shall  open,  and  none 
shid :  and  he  shall  shut,  and  none  open.  And  I  will 
hammer  him  in,  a  nail  in  a  firm  place,  and  he  shall  be 
for  a  throne  of  glory  to  his  fatJier's  house.  Thus  to  the 
last  Isaiah  \v\\\  not  allow  Shebna  to  forget  that  he  is 
without  root  among  the  people  of  God,  that  he  has 
neither  father  nor  family. 

But  a  family  is  a  teniptation,  and  the  weight  of 
it  may  drag  even  the  man  of  the  Lord's  own  ham- 
mering out  of  his  place.  This  very  year  we  find 
Eliakim  in  Shebna's  post,*  and  Shebna  reduced  to 
be  secretary ;  but  Eliakim's  family  seem  to  have  taken 
advantage  of  their  relative's  position,  and  either  at 
the  time  he  was  designated,  or  more  probably  later, 
Isaiah  wrote  two  sentences  of  warning  upon  the 
dangers  of  nepotism.  Catching  at  the  figure,  with 
which  his  designation  of  Eliakim  closed,  that  Eliakim 
would  be  a  peg  in  a  solid  wall,  a  throne  on  which  the 
glory  of  his  father's  house  might  settle,  Isaiah  reminds 

•  Isa.  xxxvi.  3. 


i.  amlxxii.]  AT   THE   LOWEST  EBB.  319 

the  much-encumbered  statesman  that  the  firmest  peg 
will  give  way  if  you  hang  too  much  on  it,  the  strongest 
man  be  pulled  down  by  his  dependent  and  indolent 
family.  They  shall  hang  upon  him  all  the  weight  of  his 
father's  house,  the  scions  and  the  offspring  (terms  con- 
trasted as  degrees  of  worth),  all  the  little  vessels,  from 
the  vessels  of  cups  to  all  the  vessels  of  flagons.  In 
that  day,  saith  fehovah  of  hosts,  shall  the  peg  that  was 
knocked  into  a  firm  place  give  way,  and  it  shall  be  knocked 
out  and  fall,  and  dozvn  shall  be  cut  the  burden  that  was 
upon  it,  for  Jehovah  hath  spoken. 

So  we  have  not  one,  but  a  couple  of  tragedies. 
Eliakim,  the  son  of  Hilkiah,  follows  Shebna,  the  son 
of  Nobody.  The  fate  of  the  overburdened  nail  is  as 
grievous  as  that  of  the  rolling  stone.  It  is  easy  to  pass 
this  prophecy  over  as  a  trivial  incident ;  but  when  we 
have  carefully  analysed  each  verse,  restored  to  the 
words  their  exact  shade  of  signification,  and  set  them 
in  their  proper  contrasts,  we  perceive  the  outlines  of 
two  social  dramas,  which  it  requires  very  little  imagi- 
nation to  invest  with  engrossing  moral  interest. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE    TURN  OF    THE    TIDE:    MORAL    EFFECTS    OF 
FORGIVENESS. 

Isaiah  xxii.,  contrasted  with  xxxiii.  (701  B.C.). 

THE  collapse  of  Jewish  faith  and  patriotism  in  the 
face  of  the  enemy  was  complete.  Final  and 
absolute  did  Isaiah's  sentence  ring  out :  Siuxly  this 
iniquity  shall  not  be  purged  from  you  till  ye  die,  saith 
Jehovah  of  hosts.  So  we  learn  from  chap,  xxii., 
written,  as  we  conceive,  in  701,  when  the  Assyrian 
armies  had  at  last  invested  Jerusalem.  But  in  chap, 
xxxiii.,  which  critics  unite  in  placing  a  few  months  later 
in  the  same  year,  Isaiah's  tone  is  entirely  changed. 
He  hurls  the  woe  of  the  Lord  upon  the  Assyrians ; 
confidently  announces  their  immediate  destruction ; 
turns,  while  the  whole  city's  faith  hangs  upon  him,  in 
supplication  to  the  Lord ;  and  announces  the  stability 
of  Jerusalem,  her  peace,  her  glory  and  the  forgiveness 
of  all  her  sins.  It  is  this  great  moral  difference 
between  chaps,  xxii.  and  xxxiii. — prophecies  that  must 
have  been  delivered  within  a  few  months  of  each  other 
— which  this  chapter  seeks  to  expound. 

In  spite  of  her  collapse,  as  pictured  in  chap,  xxii.,  Jeru- 
salem v.'as  not  taken.  Her  rulers  fled ;  her  people,  as  if 
death  were  certain,  betook  themselves  to  dissipation;  and 
yet  the  city  did  not  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Assyrian. 
Sennacherib  himself  does   not   pretend  to  have    taken 


xxii]  THE   TURN  OF  THE    TIDE.  321 

Jerusalem.  He  tells  us  how  closely  he  invested  Jerusa- 
lem, but  he  does  not  add  that  he  took  it,  a  silence  which  is 
the  more  significant  that  he  records  the  capture  of  every 
other  town  which  his  armies  attempted.  He  says  that 
Hezekiah  offered  him  tribute,  and  details  the  amount  he 
received.  He  adds  that  the  tribute  was  not  paid  at 
Jerusalem  (as  it  would  have  been  had  Jerusalem  been 
conquered),  but  that  for  "  the  payment  of  the  tribute  and 
the  performance  of  homage  "  Hezekiah  "  despatched  his 
envoy"*  to  him  when  he  was  at  some  distance  from  Jeru- 
salem. All  this  agrees  with  the  Bible  narrative.  In  the 
book  of  Kings  we  are  told  how  Hezekiah  sent  to  the 
King  of  Ass3'ria  at  Lachish,  saying,  /  have  ojfcnded; 
rctmn  from  me;  that  which  thou  pultcst  upon  me  I  will 
bear.  And  the  King  of  Assyria  appointed  unto  Hezekiah, 
King  ofjudah,  three  hundred  talents  of  silver  and  thirty 
talents  of  gold.  And  Hezekiah  gave  him  all  the  silver 
that  was  found  in  the  house  of  Jehovah  and  in  the  treasures 
of  the  king's  house.  At  the  same  time  did  Hezekiah  cut 
off  the  gold  from  the  doors  of  the  temple  of  Jehovah,  and 
from  the  pillars  which  Hezekiah,  King  of  Judah,  had 
overlaid,  and  vave  it  to  the  King  oj  Assyria.\  It  was 
indeed  a  sore  submission,  when  even  the  Temple  of  the 
Lord  had  to  be  stripped  of  its  gold.  But  it  purchased 
the  relief  of  the  city  ;  and  no  price  was  too  high  to  pay 
for  that  at  such  a  moment  as  the  present,  when  the 
populace  was  demoralised.     We  may  even  see  Isaiah's 

*  Schrader,  Cttneifornt  Inscriptions,  O.T.,  1.,  p.  2S6. 

t  2  Kings  xviii.  13 — 16.  Here  closes  a  paraj^raph.  Van  17  begins 
to  describe  what  Sennacherib  did,  in  spite  of  Hezekiah's  sub- 
mission. He  had  witlidrawn  the  army  tiiat  had  invested  Jerusalem, 
for  Hezekiah  purchased  its  v\ithJravval  by  the  tribute  he  sent.  But 
Sennacherib,  in  spite  of  this,  sent  another  corps  of  war  against 
Jerusalem,  which  second  attack  is  described  in  ver.  17  and  onwards. 
VOL.    I.  21 


THE  BOOK  OF  IS  ALU  I. 


hand  in  the  submission.  The  integrity  of  Jerusalem 
was  the  one  fact  on  which  the  word  of  the  Lord  had 
been  pledged,  on  which  the  promised  remnant  could  be 
rallied.  The  Assyrian  must  not  be  able  to  say  that  he 
has  made  Zion's  God  like  the  gods  of  the  heathen  ; 
and  her  people  must  see  that  even  when  they  have 
given  her  up  Jehovah  can  hold  her  for  Himself,  though 
in  holding  He  tear  and  wound  (xxxi.  4).  The  Temple 
is  greater  than  the  gold  of  the  Temple  ;  let  even  the 
latter  be  stripped  off  and  sold  to  the  heathen  if  it  can 
purchase  the  integrity  of  the  former.  So  Jerusalem 
remained  inviolate ;  she  was  still  the  virgin,  the  daugiiter 
of  Zion. 

And  now  upon  the  redeemed  city  Isaiah  could  proceed 
to  rebuild  the  shattered  faith  and  morals  of  her  people. 
He  could  say  to  them,  "Everything  has  turned  out  as, 
by  the  word  of  the  Lord,  I  said  it  should.  The  Assyrian 
has  come  down  ;  Egypt  has  failed  you.  Your  politicians, 
with  their  scorn  of  religion  and  their  confidence  in  their 
cleverness,  have  deserted  you.  I  told  you  that  your 
numberless  sacrifices  and  pomp  of  unreal  religion  would 
avail  you  nothing  in  your  day  of  disaster,  and  lo !  when 
this  came,  your  religion  collapsed.  Your  abounding 
wickedness,  I  said,  could  only  close  in  your  ruin  and  de- 
sertion by  God.  But  one  promise  I  kept  steadfast :  that 
Jerusalem  would  not  fall ;  and  to  your  penitence,  when- 
ever it  should  be  real,  I  assured  forgiveness.  Jerusalem 
stands  to-day,  according  to  my  word ;  and  I  repeat  my 
gospel.  History  has  vindicated  my  word,  but  Come  now, 
let  us  bring  our  reasoning  to  a  close,  saith  the  Lord; 
though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  white  as  snow  : 
thotigli  they  be  red  like  crimson,  they  shall  be  as  ivool.  I 
call  upon  you  to  build  again  on  your  redeemed  city,  and 
by  the  grace  of  this  pardon,  the  fallen  ruins  of  your  life,' 


xxii.]  THE   TURN  OF  THE   TIDE.  323 

Some  such  sermon — if  indeed  not  actually  part  of 
chap.  i. — we  must  conceive  Isaiah  to  have  delivered 
to  the  people  when  Hezekiah  had  bought  off  Senna- 
cherib, for  we  find  the  state  of  Jerusalem  suddenly 
altered.  Instead  of  the  panic,  which  imagined  the 
daily  capture  of  the  city,  and  rushed  in  hectic  holiday  to 
the  housetops,  crying,  Let  us  cat  and  drink,  for  to-iiionvw 
we  die,  we  see  the  citizens  back  upon  the  walls,  trembling 
yet  trusting.  Instead  of  sweeping  past  Isaiah  in  their 
revelry  and  leaving  him  to  feel  that  after  forty  years 
of  travail  he  had  lost  all  his  influe'.ice  with  them,  we 
see  them  gathering  round  about  him,  as  their  single 
hope  and  confidence  (xxxvii.).  King  and  people  look 
to  Isaiah  as  their  counsellor,  and  cannot  answer  the 
enemy  without  consulting  him.  What  a  change  from 
the  days  of  the  Egyptian  alliance,  embassies  sent  off 
against  his  remonstrance,  and  intrigues  developed  with- 
out his  knowledge ;  when  Ahaz  insulted  him,  and  the 
drunken  magnates  mimicked  him,  and,  in  order  to  rouse 
an  indolent  people,  he  had  to  walk  about  the  streets 
of  Jerusalem  for  three  years,  stripped  like  a  captive ! 
Truly  this  was  the  day  of  Isaiah's  triumph,  when  God 
by  events  vindicated  his  prophecy,  and  all  the  people 
acknowledged  his  leadership. 

It  was  the  hour  of  the  prophet's  triumph,  but  the 
nation  had  as  yet  only  trials  before  it.  God  has  not  done 
with  nations  or  men  when  He  has  forgiven  them; 
This  people,  whom  of  His  grace,  and  in  spite  of 
themselves,  God  had  saved  from  destruction,  stood  on 
the  brink  of  another  trial.  God  had  given  them  a 
new  lease  of  life,  but  it  was  immediately  to  pass  through 
the  furnace.  They  had  bought  off  Sennacherib,  but 
Sennacherib  came  back. 

When  Sennacherib  got   the  tribute,  he  repented  of 


324  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

the  treaty  he  had  made  with  Hezekiah.  He  may  have 
lelt  that  it  was  a  mistake  to  leave  in  his  rear  so 
powerful  a  fortress,  while  he  had  still  to  complete 
the  overthrow  of  the  Egyptians.  So,  in  spite  of  the 
tribute,  he  sent  a  force  back  to  Jerusalem  to  demand 
her  surrender.  We  can  imagine  the  moral  effect  upon 
King  Hezekiah  and  his  people.  It  was  enough  to 
sting  the  most  demoralised  into  courage.  Sennacherib 
had  doubtless  expected  so  pliant  a  king  and  so 
crushed  a  people  to  yield  at  once.  But  we  may 
confidently  picture  the  joy  of  Isaiah,  as  he  felt  the 
return  of  tlie  Assyrians  to  be  the  very  thing  required 
to  restore  spirit  to  his  demoralised  countrymen.  Here 
was  a  foe,  whom  they  could  face  with  a  sense  of 
justice,  and  not,  as  they  had  met  him  before,  in  carnal 
confidence  and  the  pride  of  their  own  cleverness. 
Now  was  to  be  a  war  not,  like  former  wars,  undertaken 
merely  for  party  glory,  but  with  the  purest  feelings  of 
patriotism  and  the  firmest  sanctions  of  religion,  a 
campaign  to  be  entered  upon,  not  with  Phar'aoh's 
support  and  the  strength  of  Egyptian  chariots,  but 
with  God  Himself  as  an  ally — of  which  it  could  be 
said  to  Judah,  Thy  righteousness  shall  go  be/ore  thee,  and 
the  glory  of  the  Lord  shall  be  thy  rerezvard. 

On  what  free,  exultant  wings  the  spirit  of  Isaiah 
must  have  risen  to  the  sublime  occasion  !  We  know 
him  as  by  nature  an  ardent  patriot  and  passionate 
lover  of  his  city,  but  through  circumstance  her  pitiless 
critic  and  unsparing  judge.  In  all  the  literature  of 
patriotism  there  are  no  finer  odes  and  orations  than 
those  which  it  owes  to  him ;  from  no  lips  came 
stronger  songs  of  war,  and  no  heart  rejoiced  more  in 
the  valour  that  turns  the  battle  from  the  gate.  But  till 
now  Isaiah's  patriotism  had  been  chiefly  a  conscience 


xsii.]  THE   TURN  OF   THE    TIDE.  325 

of  his  country's  sins,  his  passionate  love  for  Jerusalem 
repressed  by  as  stern  a  loyalty  to  righteousness,  and 
all  his  eloquence  and  courage  spent  in  holding  his 
people  from  war  and  persuading  them  to  returning 
and  rest.  At  last  this  conflict  is  at  an  end.  The 
stubbornness  of  Judah,  which  has  divided  like  some 
rock  the  current  of  her  prophet's  energies,  and  forced 
it  back  writhing  and  eddying  upon  itself,  is  removed. 
Isaiah's  faith  and  his  patriotism  run  free  with  the  force 
of  twin-tides  in  one  channel,  and  we  hear  the  fulness 
of  their  roar  as  they  leap  together  upon  the  enemies 
of  God  and  the  fatherland.  Woe  to  thee,  thou  spoiler, 
and  thou  wast  not  spoiled,  thou  treacherous  dealer,  and 
they  did  not  deal  treacherously  with  thee  !  Whenever  thou 
ceasest  to  spoil,  thou  shalt  be  spoiled;  and  whenever  thou 
hast  made  an  end  to  deal  treacherously,  they  shall  deal 
treacherously  with  thee.  O  Jehovah,  be  gracious  unto 
us;  for  Thee  have  we  waited:  be  Thou  their  arm  every 
morning,  our  salvation  also  in  the  time  oj  trouble. 
From  the  noise  of  a  surging  the  peoples  have  Jled;  from 
the  lifting  up  oj  Thyself  the  natiotis  are  scattered.  And 
gathered  is  your  spoil,  the  gathering  of  the  caterpillar;  like 
the  leaping  of  locusts,  they  are  leaping  upon  it.  Exalted 
is  Jehovah  ;  yea.  He  dwclleth  on  high  :  He  hath  filed  Zion 
tvilh  justice  and  righteousness.  And  there  shall  be  stability 
of  thy  times,  ivealth  oj  salvation,  ivisdom  and  knovoledge ; 
the  fear  oj  Jehovah,  it  shall  he  his  treasure  (xxxiii.  i — 6). 
Thus,  then,  do  we  propose  to  bridge  the  gulf  which 
lies  between  chaps,  i.  and  xxii.  on  the  one  hand 
and  chap,  xxxiii.  on  the  other.  If  they  are  all  to  be 
dated  from  the  year  701,  some  such  bridge  is  necessary. 
And  the  one  we  have  traced  is  both  morally  sufficient  and 
in  harmony  with  what  we  know  to  have  been  the  course 
of  events. 


326  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

What  do  we  learn  from  it  all  ?  We  learn  a  great  deal 
upon  that  truth  which  chap,  xxxiii.  closes  by  announcing 
— the  truth  of  Divine  forgiveness. 

The  forgiveness  of  God  is  the  foundation  of  every 
bridge  from  a  hopeless  past  to  a  courageous  present. 
That  God  can  make  the  past  be  for  guilt  as  though 
it  had  not  been  is  always  to  Isaiah  the  assurance 
of  the  future.  An  old  Greek  miniature*  represents 
him  with  Night  behind  him,  veiled  and  sullen  and 
holding  a  reversed  torch.  But  before  him  stands 
Dawn  and  Innocence,  a  little  child,  with  bright  face 
and  forward  step  and  torch  erect  and  burning.  From 
above  a  hand  pours  light  upon  the  face  of  the 
prophet,  turned  upwards.  It  is  the  message  of  a 
Divine  pardon.  Never  did  prophet  more  wearily  feel 
the  moral  continuity  of  the  generations,  the  lingering 
and  ineradicable  effects  of  crime.  Only  faith  in  a 
pardoning  God  could  have  enabled  him,  with  such 
conviction  of  the  inseparableness  of  yesterday  and 
to-morrow,  to  make  divorce  between  them,  and  turn- 
ing his  back  on  the  past,  as  this  miniature  represents, 
hail  the  future  as  Immanuel,  a  child  of  infinite  promise. 
From  exposing  and  scourging  the  past,  from  proving 
it  corrupt  and  pregnant  with  poison  for  all  the  future, 
Isaiah  will  turn  on  a  single  verse,  and  give  us  a 
future  without  war,  sorrow  or  fraud.  His  pivot  is 
ever  the  pardon  of  God.  But  nowhere  is  his  faith 
in  this  so  powerful,  his  turning  upon  it  so  swift,  as 
at  this  period  of  Jerusalem.'s  collapse,  when,  having 
sentenced  the  people  to  death  for  their  iniquity — 
It  was  revealed  in  mine  ears  by  Jehovah  of  hosts, 
Surely  this  iniquity  shall  not  be  purged  from  you   till  ye 

*  Didron,  Christian  Iconography,  fig.  52. 


xsii.l  THE   TURN  OF  THE    TIDE.  327 

die,  saith  the  Lord,  Jehovah  of  hosts  (xxii.  14) — he 
swings  round  on  his  promise  of  a  httle  before — Though 
your  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  white  as  snoiv — and 
to  the  people's  penitence  pronounces  in  the  last  verse 
of  chap,  xxxiii.  a  final  absolution  :  The  inhabitant  shall 
not  say,  I  am  sick;  the  people  that  dwell  therein  are 
forgiven  their  iniquity.  If  chap,  xxxiii.  be,  as  many  think, 
Isaiah's  latest  oracle,  then  we  have  the  literal  crown 
of  all  his  prophesying  in  these  two  words :  forgiven 
.  iniquity.  It  is  as  he  put  it  early  that  same  year  : 
Come  now  and  let  us  bring  our  reasoning  to  a  close ; 
though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  as  white 
as  snow:  though  they  be  red  like  crimson,  they  shall 
be  as  wool.  If  man  is  to  have  a  future,  this  must  be 
the  conclusion  of  all  his  past. 

But  the  absoluteness  of  God's  pardon,  making  the 
past  as  though  it  had  not  been,  is  not  the  only  lesson 
which  the  spiritual  experience  of  Jerusalem  in  that 
awful  year  of  701  has  for  us.  Isaiah's  gospel  of 
forgiveness  is  nothing  less  than  this  :  that  when  God 
gives  pardon  He  gives  Himself.  The  name  of  the 
blessed  future,  which  is  entered  through  pardon — as 
in  that  miniature,  a  child — is  Immanuel :  God-voith-us. 
And  if  it  be  correct  that  we  owe  the  forty-sixth  Psalm 
to  these  months  when  the  Assyrian  came  back  upon 
Jerusalem,  then  we  see  how  the  city,  that  had 
abandoned  God,  is  yet  able  to  sing  when  she  is  pardoned, 
God  is  our  refuge  and  our  strength,  a  very  present  help 
in  the  midst  of  troubles.  And  this  gospel  of  forgiveness 
is  not  only  Isaiah's.  According  to  the  whole  Bible, 
there  is  but  one  thing  which  separates  man  from  God 
■ — that  is  sin,  and  when  sin  is  done  away  with,  God 
annot  be  kept  from  man.  In  giving  pardon  to  man, 
God    gives    back   to    man    Himself.      How    gloriously 


328  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

evident  this  truth  becomes  in  the  New  Testament ! 
Christ,  who  is  set  before  us  as  the  Lamb  of  God,  who 
beareth  the  sins  of  the  world,  is  also  Immanuel — God- 
with-us.  The  Sacrament,  which  most  plainly  seals  to 
the  believer  the  value  of  the  One  Sacrifice  for  sin,  is  the 
Sacrament  in  which  the  believer  feeds  upon  Christ  and 
appropriates  Him.  The  sinner,  who  comes  to  Christ, 
not  only  receives  pardon  for  Christ's  sake,  but  receives 
Christ.  Forgiveness  means  nothing  less  than  this : 
that  in  giving  pardon  God  gives  Himself. 

But  if  forgiveness  mean  all  this,  then  the  objections 
frequently  brought  against  a  conveyance  of  it  so  un- 
:onditioned  as  that  of  Isaiah  fall  to  the  ground. 
Forgiveness  of  such  a  kind  cannot  be  either  unjust 
or  demoralising.  On  the  contrary,  we  see  Jerusalem 
permoralised  by  it.  At  first,  it  is  true,  the  sense  of 
weakness  and  fear  abounds,  as  we  learn  from  the 
narrative  in  chaps,  xxxvi.  and  xxxvii.  But  where 
there  was  vanity,  recklessness  and  despair,  giving  way 
to  dissipation,  there  is  now  humility,  discipline  and  a 
leaning  upon  God,  that  are  led  up  to  confidence  and 
exultation.  Jerusalem's  experience  is  just  another  proof 
that  any  moral  results  are  possible  to  so  great  a  process 
as  the  return  of  God  to  the  soul.  Awful  is  the 
responsibility  of  them  who  receive  such  a  Gift  and 
ruch  a  Guest ;  but  the  sense  of  that  awfulness  is  the 
atmosphere,  in  which  obedience  and  holiness  and  the 
courage  that  is  born  of  both  love  best  to  grow.  One 
can  understand  men  scoffing  at  messages  of  pardon  so 
unconditioned  as  Isaiah's,  who  think  they  "  mean  no 
more  than  a  clean  slate."  Taken  in  this  sense,  the 
gospel  of  forgiveness  must  prove  a  savour  of  death 
unto  death.  But  just  as  Jerusalem  interpreted  the 
message  of  her  pardon  to  mean  that  God  is  in  the  midsi 


xxii.]  THE    TURN  OF  TUF.    TIDE.  ^m 

of  her;  she  i^haU  not  he  moved,  and  straightway  obcdkncc 
was  in  all  her  hearts,  and  courage  upon  all  her  walls, 
so  neither  to  us  can  be  futile  the  New  Testament  form 
of  the  same  gospel,  which  makes  our  pardoned  soul  the 
friend  of  God,  accepted  in  the  Beloved,  and  our  body 
His  holy  temple. 

Upon  one  other  point  connected  with  the  forgiveness 
of  sins  we  get  instruction  from  the  experience  of  Jeru- 
salem. A  man  has  difficulty  in  squaring  his  sense  of 
forgiveness  with  the  return  on  the  back  of  it  of  his  old 
temptations  and  trials,  with  the  hostility  of  fortune  and 
with  the  inexorableness  of  nature.  Grace  has  spoken  to 
his  heart,  but  Providence  bears  more  hard  upon  him 
than  ever.  Pardon  does  not  change  the  outside  of  life  ; 
it  does  not  immediately  modify  the  movements  of  history, 
or  suspend  the  laws  of  nature.  Although  God  has 
forgiven  Jerusalem,  Assyria  comes  back  to  besiege  her. 
Although  the  penitent  be  truly  reconciled  to  God,  the 
constitutional  results  of  his  fall  remain  :  the  frequency 
of  temptation,  the  power  of  habit,  the  bias  and  facility 
downwards,  the  ph^^sical  and  social  consequences. 
Pardon  changes  none  of  these  things.  It  does  not 
keep  off  the  Assyrians. 

But  if  pardon  means  the  return  of  God  to  the  soul, 
tlicn  in  this  we  have  the  secret  of  the  return  of  the 
foe.  Men  could  not  try  nor  develop  a  sense  of  the 
former  except  by  their  experience  of  the  latter.  We 
have  seen  why  Isaiah  must  have  welcomed  the  per- 
fidious reappearance  of  the  Assyrians  after  he  had 
helped  to  buy  them  off.  Nothing  could  better  test  the 
sincerity  of  Jerusalem's  repentance,  or  rally  her  dissi- 
pated forces.  Had  the  Assyrians  not  returned,  the 
Jews  would  have  had  no  experimental  proof  of  God's 
restored  presence,  and  the  great  miracle  would  never 


330  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

have  happened  that  rang  thrnuph  human  history  for 
evermore — a  tium pet-call  to  faith  in  the  Gcd  of  Israel. 
And  so  still  ilie  Lord  sconrgeth  every  son  w/ioin  He  re- 
ceivcth,  because  He  would  put  our  penitence  to  the  test ; 
because  He  would  discipline  our  disorganised  affections, 
and  give  conscience  and  will  a  chance  of  wiping  out 
defeat  by  victory;  because  He  would  baptize  us  with 
the  most  powerful  baptism  possible — the  sense  of  being 
trusted  once  more  to  face  the  enemy  upon  the  fields  of 
our  disgrace. 

That  is  why  the  Assyrians  came  back  to  Jerusalem, 
and  that  is  why  temptations  and  penalties  still  pursue 
the  penitent  and  forgiven. 


w 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

OUR  GOD  A  CONSUMING  FIRE. 
Isaiah  xxxiii.  (701  b.c). 

E  have  seen  how  the  sense  of  forgiveness 
and  the  exultant  confidence,  which  fill 
chap,  xxxiii.,  were  brought  about  within  a  few 
months  after  the  sentence  of  death,  that  cast  so  deep 
a  gloom  on  chap.  xxii.  We  have  expounded  some 
of  the  contents  of  chap,  xxxiii.,  but  have  not  exhausted 
the  chapter ;  and  in  particular  we  have  not  touched  one 
of  Isaiah's  principles,  which  there  finds  perhaps  its 
finest  expression  :  the  consuming  righteousness  of 
God. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  chap,  xxxiii.  refers  to  the 
sudden  disappearance  of  the  Assyrian  from  the  walls 
of  Jerusalem.  It  was  written,  part  perhaps  on  the  eve 
of  that  deliverance,  part  immediately  after  morning 
broke  upon  the  vanished  host.  Before  those  verses 
which  picture  the  disappearance  of  the  investing  army, 
we  ought  in  strict  chronological  order  to  take  the 
narrative  in  chaps,  xxxvi.  and  xxxvii. — the  return  of 
the  besiegers,  the  insolence  of  the  Rabshakeh,  the 
prostration  of  Hezekiah,  Isaiah's  solitary  faith,  and 
the  sudden  disappearance  of  the  Assyrian.  It  will  be 
more  convenient,  however,  since  we  have  already 
entered  chap,  xxxiii.,  to  finish  it,  and  then  to  take  the 
narrative  of  the  events  which  led  up  to  it. 


1^2  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

The  opening  verses  of  chap,  xxxiii.  fit  the  very 
moment  of  the  crisis,  as  if  Isaiah  had  flung  them 
across  the  walls  in  the  teeth  of  the  Rabshakeh  and  the 
second  embassy  from  Sennacherib,  who  had  returned 
to  demand  the  surrender  of  the  city  in  spite  of 
Hezekiah's  tribute  for  her  integrity :  Woe  to  thee,  thou 
spoiler,  and  thou  ivast  not  spoiled,  thou  treacherous  dealer, 
and  they  did  not  deal  treacherously  with  thee  !  When 
thou  ceasest  to  spoil,  thou  shall  be  spoiled ;  and  when  thou 
makest  an  end  to  deal  treacherously,  they  shall  deal 
treacherously  with  thee.  Then  follows  the  prayer,  as 
already  quoted,  and  the  confidence  in  the  security 
of  Jerusalem  (ver.  2).  A  new  paragraph  (vv.  7 — 12) 
describes  Rabshakeh  and  his  company  demanding  the 
surrender  of  the  city ;  the  disappointment  of  the 
ambassadors  who  had  been  sent  to  treat  with  Senna- 
cherib (ver.  7) ;  the  perfidy  of  the  great  king,  who 
had  broken  the  covenant  they  had  made  with  him  and 
swept  his  armies  back  upon  Judah  (ver.  8)  ;  the  dis- 
heartening of  the  land  under  this  new  shock  (ver.  9) ; 
and  the  resolution  of  the  Lord  now  to  rise  and  scatter 
the  invaders  :  Now  will  I  arise,  saith  Jehovah  ;  now  ivill 
I  lift  up  Myself;  now  will  I  be  exalted.  Ye  shall  con- 
ceive chaff;  ye  shall  bring  forth  stubble;  your  breath  is 
a  fire,  that  shall  devour  you.  And  the  peoples  shall  be- 
as  the  burnings  of  lime,  as  thorns  cut  down  that  are 
burned  in  the  fire  (vv.  10 — 12). 

After  an  application  of  this  same  fire  of  God's 
righteousness  to  the  sinners  ivithin  Jerusalem,  to  which 
we  shall  presently  return,  the  rest  of  the  chapter 
pictures  the  stunned  populace  awaking  to  the  fact  that 
they  are  free.  Is  the  Assyrian  really  gone,  or  do  the 
Jews  dream  as  they  crowd  the  walls,  and  see  no  trace 
of  him  ?    Have  they  all  vanished — the  Rabshakeh,  by  the 


xxxiii.]  OUR   COD  A   CONSUMING  FIRE.  3.r, 

conduit  of  the  upper  pool,  with  fifs  loud  voice  and  insults; 
the  scribes  to  whom  they  handed  the  tribute,  and  who 
prolonged  the  agony  by  counting  it  under  their  eyes  ; 
the  scouts  and  engineers  insolently  walking  about  Zion 
and  mapping  out  her  walls  for  the  assault ;  the  close 
investment  of  barbarian  hordes,  with  their  awesome 
speech  and  uncouth  looks  !  Where  is  he  that  counted? 
ivhere  is  he  that  ivcighed  the  tribute  ?  where  is  he  that 
counted  the  toivers  ?  Thou  shaft  not  see  the  fierce  people,  a 
people  of  a  deep  speech  that  thou  canst  not  perceive,  oj  a 
strange  tongue  that  thou  canst  not  understand.  They 
have  vanished.  Hezekiah  may  lift  his  head  again.  O 
people — sore  at  heart  to  see  thy  king  in  sackcloth  and 
ashes  *  as  the  enemy  devoured  province  after  province 
of  thy  land  and  cooped  thee  up  within  the  narrow 
walls,  thou  scarcely  didst  dare  to  peep  across — take 
courage,  the  terror  is  gone  !  A  king  in  his  beauty 
thine  eyes  shall  see;  they  shall  behold  the  land  spreading 
very  far  Jor/h  (ver.  17).  We  had  thought  to  die  in  the 
restlessness  and  horror  of  war,  never  again  to  know 
what  stable  life  and  regular  worship  were,  our  Temple 
services  interrupted,  our  home  a  battlefield.  But  look 
upon  Zion ;  behold  again  she  is  the  city  of  our  solemn 
diets;  thine  eyes  shall  see  fcrusalem  a  quiet  habitation, 
a  tent  that  shall  not  be  removed,  the  stakes  zvhcrcof  shah 
never  be  plucked  up,  neither  shall  the  cords  thereof  be 
broken.  But  there  Jehovah,  whom  we  have  known 
only  for  affliction,  shall  be  in  majesty  for  us.  Other 
peoples  have  their  natural  defences,  Assyria  and 
Egypt  their  Euphrates  and  Nile ;  but  God  Himself 
shall  be  for  us  a  place  of  rivers,  streams,  broad  on  both 
hands,  ou  which  never  a  galley  shall  go,  nor  gallant  ship 

♦  Chap,  xxxvii. 


334  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

shall  pass  upon  it.  Without  sign  of  battle,  God  sliall 
be  our  refuge  and  our  strength.  It  was  that  mar- 
vellous deliverance  of  Jerusalem  by  the  hand  of  God, 
with  no  effort  of  human  war,  which  caused  Isaiah  to 
invest  with  such  majesty  the  meagre  rock,  its  squalid 
surroundings  and  paltry  defences.  The  insignificant 
and  waterless  city  was  glorious  to  the  prophet 
because  God  was  in  her.  One  of  the  richest  imagina- 
tions which  patriot  ever  poured  upon  his  fatherland 
was  inspired  by  the  simplest  faith  saint  ever  breathed. 
Isaiah  strikes  again  the  old  keynote  (chap,  viii.) 
about  the  waterlessness  of  Jerusalem.  We  have  to 
keep  in  mind  the  Jews'  complaints  of  this,  in  order 
to  understand  what  the  forty-sixth  Psalm  means  when 
it  says.  There  is  a  river  the  streams  whereof  make  glad 
the  city  of  our  God,  the  hcly  place  of  the  tabernacles  of 
the  Most  High — or  what  Isaiah  means  when  he  says, 
Glorious  shall  Jehovah  be  unto  us,  a  place  cf  broad 
rivers  and  streams.  Yea,  he  adds,  Jehovah  is  every- 
thing to  us  :  fehovaJi  is  our  fudge ;  fehovah  is  our  Law- 
giver; fehovah  is  our  King :  He  will  save  us. 

Such  were  the  feelings  aroused  in  Jerusalem  by  the 
sudden  relief  of  the  city.  Some  of  the  verses,  which 
we  have  scarcely  touched,  we  will  now  consider  more 
fully  as  the  expression  of  a  doctrine  which  runs 
throughout  Isaiah,  and  indeed  is  one  of  his  two  or 
three  fundamental  truths — that  the  righteousness  of 
God  is  an  all-pervading  atmosphere,  an  atmosphere 
that  wears  and  burns. 

For  forty  years  the  prophet  had  been  preaching  to 
the  Jews  his  gospel,  God-with-us ;  but  they  never 
awakened  to  the  reality  of  the  Divine  presence  till  they 
saw  it  in  the  dispersion  of  the  Assyrian  army.     Then 


iii.]  OUR   COD  A    CONSUM/yr.   FIRE.  3.;5 


God  became  real  to  them  (ver.  14).  The  justice  of  God, 
preached  so  long  by  Isaiah,  had  always  seemed  some- 
thing abstract.  Now  they  saw  how  concrete  it  was. 
It  was  not  only  a  doctrine  :  it  was  a  fact.  It  was  a  fact 
that  was  a  fire.  Isaiah  had  often  called  it  a  fire ;  they 
thought  this  was  rhetoric.  But  now  they  saw  the 
actual  burning — the  peoples  as  the  burning  of  lime,  as 
thorns  cut  doimt  that  are  burned  in  the  fire.  And  when 
they  felt  the  fire  so  near,  each  sinner  of  them  awoke  to 
the  fact  that  he  had  something  burnable  in  himself, 
something  which  could  as  little  stand  the  fire  as  the 
Assyrians  could.  There  was  no  difference  in  this  fire 
outside  and  inside  the  walls.  What  it  burned  there 
it  would  burn  here.  Nay,  was  not  Jerusalem  the 
dwelling-place  of  God,  and  Ariel  the  very  hearth  and 
furnace  of  the  fire  which  they  saw  consume  the 
Assyrians?  Who,  they  cried  in  their  terror — Who 
among  us  shall  dwell  with  the  devouring  fire  ?  Who 
among  us  shall  divell  with  everlasting  burnings  ? 

We  are  familiar  with  Isaiah's  fundamental  God-with- 
us,  and  how  it  was  spoken  not  for  mercy  only,  but  for 
judgement  (chap.  viii.).  If  God-with-us  meant  love  with 
us,  salvation  with  us,  it  meant  also  holiness  with  us, 
judgement  with  us,  the  jealousy  of  God  breathing  upon 
what  is  impure,  false  and  proud.  Isaiah  felt  this  so 
hotly,  that  his  sense  of  it  has  broken  out  into  some  of 
the  fieriest  words  in  all  prophecy.  In  his  younger  days 
he  told  the  citizens  not  to  provoke  the  eyes  of  God's 
glory,  as  if  Heaven  had  fastened  on  their  life  two 
gleaming  orbs,  not  only  to  pierce  them  with  its  vision, 
but  to  consume  them  with  its  wrath.  Again,  in  the 
lowering  cloud  of  calamity  he  had  seen  lips  of  indig- 
nation, a  tongue  as  a  devouring  fire,  and  in  the  over- 
flowing   stream   which  finally  issued   from   it    the  hot 


THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


breath  of  the  Almighty.  These  are  unforgettable  de- 
scriptions of  the  ceaseless  activity  of  Divine  righteous- 
ness in  the  life  of  man.  They  set  our  imaginations  on 
fire  with  the  prophet's  burning  belief  in  this.  But  they 
are  excelled  by  another,  more  frequently  used  by  Isaiah, 
wherein  he  likens  the  holiness  of  God  to  an  universal 
and  constant  fire.  To  Isaiah  life  was  so  penetrated  by 
the  active  justice  of  God,  that  he  described  it  as  bathed 
ni  fire,  as  blown  through  with  fire.  Righteousness  was 
no  mere  doctrine  to  this  prophet :  it  was  the  most  real 
thing  in  history;  it  was  the  presence  which  pervaded 
and  explained  all  phenomena.  We  shall  understand 
the  difference  between  Isaiah  and  his  people  if  we  have 
ever  for  our  eyes'  sake  looked  at  a  great  conflagration 
through  a  coloured  glass  which  allowed  us  to  sec  the 
solid  materials — stone,  wood  and  iron — but  prevented  us 
from  perceiving  the  flames  and  shimmering  heat.  To 
look  thus  is  to  see  pillars,  lintels  and  cross-beams 
twist  and  fall,  crumble  and  fade ;  but  how  inexplicable 
the  process  seems  !  Take  away  the  glass,  and  every- 
thing is  clear.  The  fiery  element  is  filling  all  the 
interstices,  that  were  blank  to  us  before,  and  beating 
upon  the  solid  material.  The  heat  becomes  visible, 
shimmering  even  where  there  is  no  flame.  Just  so  had 
it  been  with  the  sinners  in  Judah  these  forty  years. 
Their  society  and  politics,  individual  fortunes  and 
careers,  personal  and  national  habits — the  home,  the 
Church,  the  State — common  outlines  and  shapes  of  life— - 
were  patent  to  every  eye,  but  no  man  could  explain  the 
constant  decay  and  diminution,  because  all  were  looking 
at  life  through  a  glass  darkly.  Isaiah  rlone  faced  life 
with  open  vision,  which  filled  up  for  him  the  interstices 
of  experience  and  gave  terrible  explanation  to  fate. 
It  was  a  vision  that  nearly  scorched   the  eyes  out  of 


xxxiii.]  OUR  GOD  A   CONSUMING  FIRE.  337 

him.  Life  as  he  saw  it  was  steeped  in  flame — the 
glowing  righteousness  of  God.  Jerusalem  was  full  of 
the  spirit  of  justice,  the  spirit  of  burning.  The  light  of 
Israel  is  for  a  fire,  and  his  Holy  One  for  a  flame.  The 
Assyrian  empire,  that  vast  erection  which  the  strong 
hands  of  kings  had  reared,  was  simply  their  pyre,  made 
ready  for  the  burning.  For  a  Tophcth  is  prepared  of 
old;  yea,  for  the  king  it  is  made  ready ;  He  hath  made  it 
deep  and  large ;  the  pile  thereof  is  fire  and  much  ivood ; 
the  breath  of  Jehovah,  like  a  stream  of  brimstone,  doth 
kindle  it.*  So  Isaiah  saw  life,  and  flashed  it  on  his 
countrymen.  At  last  the  glass  fell  from  their  eyes 
also,  and  they  cried  aloud,  Who  amojig  us  shall  dzvell 
with  the  devouring  fire  ?  Who  among  us  shall  dwell  with 
everlasting  burnings  ?  Isaiah  replied  that  there  is 
one  thing  which  can  survive  the  universal  flame, 
and  t'nat  is  character :  He  that  ivalkcih  righteously  and 
spcakclh  uprightly ;  he  that  dcspisctJi  the  gain  of  fraud, 
that  shakcth  his  hands  from  the  holding  of  bribes,  that 
stoppeth  his  ears  from  the  hearing  of  blood,  and  shuttcth 
his  eyes  from  looking  on  evil,  he  shall  dwell  on  high  :  his 
place  of  defence  shall  be  the  munitions  of  rocks  :  his  bread 
shall  be  given  him  :  his  water  shall  be  sure. 

Isaiah's  Vision  of  Fire  suggests  two  thoughts  to  us. 

I.  Have  we  done  well  to  confine  our  horror  of  the 
consuming  fires  of  righteousness  to  the  next  life  ?  If  we 
would  but  use  the  eyes  which  Scripture  lends  us,  the  rifts 
of  prophetic  vision  and  awakened  conscience  by  which 
the  fogs  of  this  world  and  of  our  own  hearts  are  rent,  we 
should  see  fires  as  fierce,  a  consumption  as  pitiless, 
about    us    here  as    ever  the    conscience  of  a  startled 

*    Chaps,  iv.  4;  XXX.  33. 
VOL.    I.  22 


THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


sinner  fearfully  looked  for  across  the  grave.  Nay, 
have  not  the  fires,  with  which  the  darkness  of  eternity 
has  been  made  lurid,  themselves  been  kindled  at  the 
burnings  of  this  life  ?  Is  it  not  because  men  have  felt 
how  hot  this  world  was  being  made  for  sin  that  they 
have  l:ad  a  ceriain  fearful  expectation  of  judgement  and 
the  fioxeness  of  fire  ?  We  shudder  at  the  horrible 
pictures  of  hell  which  some  older  theologians  and  poets 
have  painted  for  us;  but  it  was  not  morbid  fancy, 
nor  the  barbarism  of  their  age  nor  their  own  heart's 
cruelty  that  inspired  these  men.  It  was  their  hot 
honour  for  the  Divine  holiness ;  it  was  their  experience 
of  how  pitiless  to  sin  Providence  is  already  in  this  life  ;  it 
was  their  own  scorched  senses  and  affections — brands,  as 
many  honest  men  among  them  felt  themselves,  plucked 
from  the  burning.  Our  God  is  a  consuming  fire — here 
as  well  as  yonder.  Hell  has  borrowed  her  glare  from 
the  imagination  of  men  aflame  with  the  real  fieriness 
of  life,  and  may  be — more  truly  than  of  old — pictured  as 
the  dead  and  hollow  cinder  left  by  those  fires,  of  which, 
as  every  true  man's  conscience  is  aware,  this  life  is  full. 
It  w?!S  not  hell  that  created  conscience ;  it  was  conscience 
that  created  hell,  and  conscience  was  fired  by  the  vision 
which  fired  Isaiah — of  all  life  aglow  with  the  righteous- 
ness of  God — God  with  us,  as  He  was  with  Jerusalem, 
a  spirit  of  burning  and  a  spirit  oj  justice.  This  is  the 
pantheism  of  conscience,  and  it  stands  to  reason.  God  is 
the  one  power  of  life.  What  can  exist  beside  Him  except 
what  is  like  Him  ?  Nothing — sooner  or  later  nothing 
but  what  is  like  Him.  The  will  that  is  as  His  will,  the 
heart  that  is  pure,  the  character  that  is  transparent — 
only  these  dwell  with  the  everlasting  fire,  and  burning 
with  God,  as  the  bush  which  Moses  saw,  are  neverthe- 
less not  consumed.     Let  us  lay  it  to  heart — Isaiah  has 


cii;,]  OUR   GOD  A    CONSUMING  FIRE.  339 


nothing  to  tell  us  about  hell-fire,  but  a  great  deal  about 
the  pitiless  justice  of  God  in  this  life. 

2.  The  second  thought  suggested  by  Isaiah's  Vision  of 
Life  is  a  comparison  of  it  with  the  theory  of  life  which 
is  fashionable  to-day.  Isaiah's  figure  for  life  was  a  burn- 
ing. Ours  is  a  battle,  and  at  first  sight  ours  looks  the 
truer.  Seen  through  a  formula  which  has  become 
everywhere  fashionable,  life  is  a  fierce  and  fascinating 
warfare.  Civilised  thought,  when  asked  to  describe 
any  form  of  life  or  to  account  for  a  death  or  survival, 
most  monotonously  replies,  "The  struggle  for  existence." 
The  sociologist  has  borrov/ed  the  phrase  from  the 
biologist,  and  it  is  on  everybody's  lips  to  describe  their 
idea  of  human  life.  It  is  uttered  by  the  historian  when 
he  would  explain  the  disappearance  of  this  national  type, 
the  prevalence  of  that  one.  The  economist  traces  de- 
pression and  failures,  the  fatal  fevers  of  speculation,  the 
cruelties  and  bad  humours  of  commercial  life,  to  the 
same  source.  A  merchant  with  profits  lessening  and 
failure  before  him  relieves  his  despair  and  apologiz.,s  to 
his  pride  with  the  words,  "  It  is  all  due  to  competition." 
Even  character  and  the  spiritual  graces  are  sometimes 
set  down  as  results  of  the  same  material  process.  Some 
have  sought  to  deduce  from  it  all  intelligence,  others 
more  audaciously  all  ethics;  and  it  is  certain  that  in 
the  silence  of  men's  hearts  after  a  moral  defeat  there 
is  no  excuse  more  frequently  offered  to  conscience  by 
will  than  that  the  battle  was  too  hot. 

But  fascinating  as  life  is  when  seen  through  this 
formula,  does  not  the  fornmla  act  on  our  vision 
precisely  as  the  glass  we  supposed,  which  when  we 
look  through  it  on  a  conflagration  shows  us  the  solid 
matter  and  the  changes  through  which  this  passes, 
but    hides    from    us   the   real    agent?     One    need   not 


340  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

deny  the  reality  of  the  struggle  for  existence,  or  that 
its  results  are  enormous.  We  struggle  with  each  other, 
and  affect  each  other  for  good  and  for  evil,  sometimes 
past  all  calculation.  But  we  do  not  fight  in  a  vacuum. 
Let  Isaiah's  vision  be  the  complement  of  our  own  feeling. 
We  fight  in  an  atmosphere  that  affects  every  one  of 
us  far  more  powerfully  than  the  opposing  wits  or  wills 
of  our  fellow-men.  Around  us  and  through  us,  within 
and  without  as  we  fight,  is  the  all-pervading  righteous- 
ness of  God ;  and  it  is  far  oftener  the  effects  of  this 
which  we  see  in  the  falls  and  the  changes  of  life  than 
the  effects  of  our  struggle  with  each  other,  enormous 
though  these  may  be.  On  this  point  there  is  an  exact 
parallel  between  our  days  and  the  days  of  Isaiah.  Then 
the  politicians  of  Judah,  looking  through  their  darkened 
glass  at  life,  said.  Life  is  simply  a  war  in  which  the 
strongest  prevail,  a  game  which  the  most  cunning  win. 
So  they  made  fast  their  alliances,  and  were  ready  to 
meet  the  Assyrian,  or  they  fled  in  panic  before  him, 
according  as  Egypt  or  he  seemed  the  stronger.  Isaiah 
saw  that  with  Assyrian  and  Jew  another  Power  was 
present — the  real  reason  of  ever}'  change  in  politics, 
collapse  or  crash  in  either  of  the  empires — the  active 
righteousness  of  God.  Assyrian  and  Jew  had  not 
only  to  contend  with  each  other.  They  were  at 
strife  with  Him.  We  now  see  plainly  that  Isaiah  was 
right.  Far  more  operative  than  the  intrigues  of 
politicians  or  the  pride  of  Assyria,  because  it  used 
these  simply  as  its  mines  and  its  fuel,  was  the  law  of 
righteousness,  the  spiritual  force  which  is  as  impalpable 
as  the  atmosphere,  yet  strong  to  burn  and  try  as  a  furnace 
seven  times  heated.  And  Isaiah  is  cquall}'  right  for  to- 
day. As  we  look  at  life  through  our  fashionable  formula 
it  does  seem  a  mass   of  struggle,  in   which  we  catch 


xxxiii.]  OUR   GOD  A    CONSUMING  FIRE.  341 

only  now  and  then  a  glimpse  of  the  decisions  of  right- 
eousness, but  the  prevailing  lawlessness  of  which  we 
do  not  hesitate  to  make  the  reason  of  all  that  happens, 
and  in  particular  the  excuse  of  our  own  defeats.  We 
are  wrong.  Righteousness  is  not  an  occasional  spark ; 
righteousness  is  the  atmosphere.  Though  our  dull  e3'es 
see  it  only  now  and  then  strike  into  flame  in  the  battle 
of  life,  and  take  for  granted  that  it  is  but  the  flash  of 
meeting  wits  or  of  steel  on  steel,  God's  justice  is  every- 
where, pervasive  and  pitiless,  affecting  the  combatants 
far  more  than  they  have  power  to  affect  one  another. 

We  shall  best  learn  the  truth  of  this  in  the  way  the 
sinners  in  Jerusalem  learned  it — each  man  first  looking 
into  himself  Who  among  us  shall  dwell  with  the  ever- 
lasting burnings  ?  Can  we  attribute  all  our  defeats  to 
the  opposition  that  was  upon  us  at  the  moment  they 
occurred  ?  When  our  temper  failed,  when  our  charity 
relaxed,  when  our  resoluteness  gave  way,  was  it  the 
hotness  of  debate,  was  it  the  pressure  of  the  crowd, 
was  it  the  sneer  of  the  scorner,  that  was  to  bkuue  ? 
We  all  know  that  these  were  only  the  occasions  of  our 
defeats.  Conscience  tells  us  that  the  cause  lay  in  a 
slothful  or  self-indulgent  heart,  which  the  corrosive 
atmosphere  of  Divine  righteousness  had  been  con- 
suming, and  which,  sapped  and  hollow  by  its  effect, 
gave  way  at  every  material  shock. 

With  the  knowledge  that  conscience  gives  us,  let  us 
now  look  at  a  kind  of  figure  which  must  be  within  the 
horizon  of  all  of  us.  Once  it  was  the  most  command- 
ing stature  am.ong  its  fellows,  the  straight  back  and 
broad  brow  of  a  king  of  men.  But  now  what  is  the 
last  sight  of  him  that  will  remain  with  us,  flung  out 
there  against  the  evening  skies  of  his  life  ?  A  bent  back 
(we  speak  of  character),  a  stooping  face,  the  shrinking 


342  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 


outlines  of  a  man  ready  to  collapse.  It  was  not  the 
struggle  for  existence  that  killed  him,  for  he  was  born 
to  prevail  in  it.  It  was  the  atmosphere  that  told  on 
him.  He  carried  in  him  that  on  which  the  atmosphere 
could  not  but  tell.  A  low  selfishness  or  passion  in- 
habited him,  and  became  the  predominant  part  of  him, 
so  that  his  outward  life  was  only  its  shell ;  and  when 
the  fire  of  God  at  last  pierced  this,  he  was  as  thorns 
cut  down,  that  are  burned  in  the  fire. 

We  can  explain  much  with  the  outward  eye,  but  the 
most  of  the  explanation  lies  beyond.  Where  our  know- 
ledge of  a  man's  life  ends,  the  great  mx-aning  of  it  often 
only  begins.  All  the  vacancy  beyond  the  outline  we  see 
is  full  of  that  meaning.  God  is  there,  and  God  is  a 
constuning  fire.  Let  us  not  seek  to  explain  lives  only 
by  what  we  see  of  tliem,  the  visible  strife  of  man  with 
man  and  nature.  It  is  the  invisible  that  contains  the 
secret  of  what  is  seen.  We  see  the  shoulders  stoop, 
but  not  the  burden  upon  them  ;  the  face  darken,  but 
look  in  vain  for  what  casts  the  shadow  ;  the  light  sparkle 
in  the  eye,  but  cannot  tell  what  star  of  hope  its  glance 
has  caught.  And  even  so  when  we  behold  fortune  and 
character  go  down  in  the  warfare  of  this  world,  we  ought 
to  rem  ember  that  it  is  not  always  the  things  we  see  that 
are  to  blame  for  the  fall,  but  that  awful  flame  which, 
unseen  by  common  man,  has  been  revealed  to  the 
l-rophets  of  God. 

Righteousness  and  retribution,  then,  are  an  atmosphere 
— not  lines  or  laws  that  we  may  happen  to  stumble 
upon,  not  explosives,  that,  being  touched,  burst  out  on 
us,  but  the  atmosphere — always  about  us  and  always 
at  work,  invisible  and  yet  more  mighty  than  aught  we 
see.  God,  in  whom  wc  live  and  move  and  have  our  being, 
is  a  consuming  fire. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE  RADSHAKEH;  OR,  LAST  TEMPTATIONS  OF  FAITH 
Isaiah  xxxvi.  (701  b.c). 

IT  remains  for  us  now  to  follow  in  chaps,  xxxvi., 
xxxvii.,  the  historical  narrative  of  the  events,  the 
moral  results  of  which  we  have  seen  so  vivid  in  chap, 
xxxiii. — the  perfidious  return  of  the  Assyrians  to  Jeru- 
salem after  Hezckiah  had  bought  them  off  and  their 
final  disappearance  from  the  Holy  Land. 

This  historical  narrative  has  also  its  moral.  It  is  not 
annals,  but  drama.  The  whole  moral  of  Isaiah's  pro- 
phesying is  here  flung  into  a  duel  between  champions  of 
the  two  tempers,  which  we  have  seen  in  perpetual  conflict 
throughout  his  book.  The  two  tempers  are — on  Isaiah's 
side  an  absolute  and  unselfish  faith  in  God,  Sovereign  of 
the  world  and  Saviour  of  His  people;  on  the  side  of 
the  Assyrians  a  bare,  brutal  confidence  in  themselves,  in 
human  cleverness  and  success,  a  vaunting  contempt  of 
righteousness  and  of  pit}''.  The  main  interest  of  Isaiah's 
book  has  consisted  in  the  way  these  tempers  oppose  each 
other,  and  alternately  influence  the  feeling  of  the  Jewish 
community.  That  interest  is  now  to  culminate  in  the 
scene  which  brings  near  such  thorough  representatives 
of  the  two  tempers  as  Isaiah  and  the  Rabshakeh,  with 
the  crowd  of  wavering  Jews  between.  Most  strikinglj', 
Assyria's  last  assault  is  not  of  force,  but  of  speech,  de- 
livering upon  faith  the  subtle  arguments  of  the  worl 


344  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

temper ;  and  as  strikingly,  while  all  official  religion  and 
power  of  State  stand  helpless  against  them,  these  argu- 
ments are  met  by  the  bare  word  of  God.  In  this  mere 
statement  of  the  situation,  however,  we  perceive  that 
much  more  than  the  quarrel  of  a  single  generation  is 
being  decided.  This  scene  is  a  parable  of  the  ever- 
lasting struggle  between  faith  and  force,  with  doubt 
and  despair  between  them.  In  the  clever,  self-confident, 
persuasive  personage  with  two  languages  on  his  tongue 
and  an  army  at  his  back ;  in  the  fluttered  representatives 
of  official  religion  who  meet  him  and  are  afraid  of  the 
effect  of  his  speech  on  the  common  people  ;  in  the  ranks 
of  dispirited  men  who  hear  the  dialogue  from  the  wall ; 
in  the  sensitive  king  so  aware  of  faith,  and  yet  so  help- 
less to  bring  faith  forth  to  peace  and  triumph ;  and,  in 
the  background  of  the  whole  situation,  the  serene  prophet 
of  God,  grasping  only  God's  word,  and  by  his  own  stead- 
fastness carrying  the  city  over  the  crisis  and  proving 
that  faith  indeed  can  be  tJie  substance  of  things  hoped 
for — we  have  a  phase  of  the  struggle  ordained  unto  every 
generation  of  men,  and  which  is  as  fresh  to-day  as  when 
Rabshakeh  played  the  cynic  and  the  scribes  and  elders 
filled  the  part  of  nervous  defenders  of  the  faith,  under 
the  walls  of  faith's  fortress,  two  thousand  five  hundred 
years  ago. 

The  Rabshakeh.  * 

This  word  is  a  Hebrew  transliteration  of  the  Assyrian 
Rab-sak,  chief  of  the  officers.  Though  there  is  some 
doubt  on  the  point,  we  may  naturally  presume  from  the 
duties  he  here  discharges  that  the  Rabshakeh  was  a 
civilian — probably  the  civil  commissioner  or  political 
officer  attached  to  the  Assyrian  army,  which  was  com- 


xxxvi.]  THE  RABSHAKEH.  345 

manded,  according  to  2  Kings  xviii.  1 6,  by  the  Tartan 
or  commander-in-chief  himself. 

In  all  the  Bible  there  is  not  a  personage  more  clever 
than  this  Rabshakeh,  nor  more  typical.  He  was  an 
able  deputy  of  the  king  who  sent  him,  but  he  repre- 
sented still  more  thoroughly  the  temper  of  the  civilisation 
to  which  he  belonged.  There  is  no  word  of  this  man 
which  is  not  characteristic.  A  clever,  fluent  diplomatist, 
with  the  traveller's  knowledge  of  men  and  the  con- 
queror's contempt  for  them,  the  Rabshakeh  is  the 
product  of  a  victorious  empire  like  the  Assyrian,  or, 
say,  like  the  British.  Our  services  sometimes  turn  out 
the  like  of  him — a  creature  able  to  speak  to  natives 
in  their  own  language,  full  and  ready  of  information, 
mastering  the  surface  of  affairs  at  a  glance,  but  always 
baffled  by  the  deeper  tides  which  sway  nations  ;  a  deft 
player  upon  party  interests  and  the  superficial  human 
passions,  but  unfit  to  touch  the  deep  springs  of  men's 
religion  and  patriotism.  Let  us  speak,  however,  with 
respect  of  the  Rabshakeh.  From  his  rank  (Sayce  calls 
him  the  Vizier),  as  well  as  from  the  cleverness  with  which 
he  explains  what  we  know  to  have  been  the  policy 
of  Sennacherib  towards  the  populations  of  Syria,  he 
may  well  have  been  the  inspiring  mind  at  this  time 
of  the  great  Assyrian  empire — Sennacherib's  Bis- 
marck. 

The  Rabshakeh  had  strutted  down  from  the  great 
centre  of  civilisation,  with  its  temper  upon  him,  and  all 
its  great  resources  at  his  back,  confident  to  twist  these 
poor  provincial  tribes  round  his  little  finger.  How 
petty  he  conceived  them  we  infer  from  his  never  styling 
Hezekiah  the  king.  This  was  to  be  an  occasion  for 
the  Rabshakeh's  own  glorification.  Jerusalem  was  to 
all  to  his  clever  speeches.     He  had  indeed  the  army 


346  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

behind  him,  but  the  work  to  be  done  was  not  the  rough 
work  of  soldiers.  All  was  to  be  managed  by  him,  the 
civilian  and  orator.  This  fellow,  with  his  two  languages 
and  clever  address,  was  to  step  out  in  front  of  the 
army  and  finish  the  whole  business. 

The  Rabshakeh  spoke  extremely  well.  With  his 
first  words  he  touched  the  sore  point  of  Judah's  policy : 
her  trust  in  Egypt.  On  this  he  spoke  like  a  very  Isaiah. 
But  he  showed  a  deeper  knowledge  of  Judah's  interna] 
affairs,  and  a  subtler  deftness  in  using  it,  when  he 
referred  to  the  matter  of  the  altars.  Hezekiah  had 
abolished  the  high  places  in  all  parts  of  the  land,  and 
gathered  the  people  to  the  central  sanctuary  in  Jerusalem. 
The  Assyrian  knew  that  a  number  of  Jews  must  look 
upon  this  disestablishment  of  religion  in  the  provinces 
as  likely  to  incur  Jehovah's  displeasure  and  turn  Him 
against  them.  Therefore  he  said.  But  if  thou  say  itnto 
me,  We  trust  in  Jehovah  our  God,  is  not  that  He  whose 
high  places  and  whose  altars  Hezekiah  hath  taki  n  away,  and 
hath  said  to  Judah  and  to  Jerusalem,  Ye  shall  worship 
before  this  altar  ?  And  then,  having  shaken  their  religious 
confidence,  he  made  sport  of  their  military  strength.  And 
finally  he  boldly  asserted,  Jehovah  said  unto  me,  Go  up 
against  this  land  ami  destroy  it.  All  this  shows  a  master 
in  diplomacy,  a  most  clever  demagogue.  The  scribes 
and  elders  felt  the  edge,  and  begged  him  to  sheatr.e  it 
in  a  language  unknown  to  the  common  people.  But  he, 
conscious  of  his  power,  spoke  the  more  boldly,  address- 
ing himself  directly  to  the  poorer  sort  of  the  garrison,  on 
whom  the  siege  would  press  most  heavily.  His  second 
.speech  to  them  is  a  good  illustration  of  the  policy  pursued 
by  Assyria  at  this  time  towards  the  cities  of  Palestine. 
We  know  from  the  annals  of  Sennacherib  that  his  custom- 
ary policy,  to  seduce  the  populations  of  a  hostile  State 


xxxvi.]  THE  RABSHAKEH.  347 

from  allegiance  to  their  rulers,  had  succeeded  in  other 
cases ;  and  it  was  so  plausibly  uttered  in  this  case,  that 
it  seemed  likely  to  succeed  again.   To  the  common  soldiers 
on  the  walls,  with  the  prospect  of  being  reduced  to  the 
foul  rations  of  a  prolonged  siege  (ver.  12),  Sennacherib's 
ambassador  offers  rich  and  equal  property  and  enjoy- 
ment.    Make  a  treaty  ivitli  me,  and  come  out  to  me,  and 
eat  every  one  of  his    vine    and    every    one   of  his  fig 
tree,  and  drink  ye  every  one  of  the  ivater  oj  his  cistern,  until 
I  come  and  take  you  away  to  a  land  like  your  own  land, 
a  land  of  corn  and  grapes,  a  land  of  bread-corn  and 
orchards.     Every  one  !  — it  is  a  most  subtle  assault  upon 
the  discipline,  comradeship  and  patriotism  ofthecommon 
soldiers  by  the  promises  of  a  selfish,  sensuous  equality 
and    individualism.      But    then    the    speaker's    native 
cynicism  gets  the  better  of  him — it  is  not  possible  for 
an  Assyrian  long  to  play  the  part  of  clemency — and, 
with  a  flash  of  scorn,  he  asks  the  sad  men  upon  the  walls 
whether  they  really  believe  that  Jehovah  can  save  them  : 
Hath  any  of  the  gods  of  the  nations  delivered  his  land  out 
of  the  hand  of  the  King  of  Assyria,  .  .  .  that  Jehovah 
should  deliver  Jerusalem  out  of  my  hand?     All  the  range 
of   their  feelings  does    he    thus  run    through,    seeking 
with  sharp  words  to  snap  each  cord  of  faith  in  God, 
of  honour  to  the  king  and  love  of  country.     Had  the 
Jews  heart  to  answer  him,  they  might  point  out  the 
inconsistency  between  his  claim  to  have  been  sent  by 
Jehovah   and  the  contempt   he  now  pours  upon  their 
God.     But    the   inconsistency   is    characteristic.      The 
Assyrian  has  some  acquaintance  with  the  Jewish  faith ; 
he    makes    use    of   its    articles    when    they   serve   his 
purpose,  but  his  ultimatum  is  to  tear  them  to  shreds  in 
their  believers'  faces.     He  treats  the  Jews  as  men  ol 
culture  still  sometimes  treat  barbarians,  first  scornfully 


348  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

humouring  their  faith  and  then  savagely  trampHng  it 
under  foot. 

So  clever  were  the  speeches  of  the  Rabshakeh.  We 
see  why  he  was  appointed  to  this  mission.  He  was  an 
expert  both  in  the  language  and  religion  of  this  tribe, 
perched  on  its  rock  in  the  remote  Judsean  highlands. 
For  a  foreigner  he  showed  marvellous  familiarity  with  the 
temper  and  internal  jealousies  of  the  Jewish  religion.  He 
turned  these  on  each  other  almost  as  adroitly  as  Paul 
himself  did  in  the  disputes  between  Sadducees  and 
Pharisees.  How  the  fellow  knew  his  cleverness,  strut- 
ting there  betwixt  army  and  town  !  He  would  show  his 
soldier  friends  the  proper  way  of  dealing  with  stubborn 
barbarians.  He  would  astonish  those  faith-proud  high- 
landers  by  exhibiting  how  much  he  was  aware  of  the  life 
behind  their  thick  walls  and  silent  faces,  for  the  king's 
comiuandnient  ivas,  Answer  him  not. 

And  yet  did  the  Rabshakeh,  with  all  his  raking, 
know  the  heart  of  Judah  ?  No,  truly.  The  whole 
interest  of  this  man  is  the  incongruity  of  the  expert- 
ness  and  surface-knowledge,  which  he  spattered  on 
Jerusalem's  walls,  with  the  deep  secret  of  God,  that,  as 
some  inexhaustible  well,  the  fortress  of  the  faith  carried 
within  her.  Ah,  Assyrian,  there  is  more  in  starved 
Jerusalem  than  thou  canst  put  in  thy  speeches  !  Sup- 
pose Heaven  were  to  give  those  sharp  eyes  of  thine 
power  to  look  through  the  next  thousand  years,  and  see 
this  race  and  this  religion  thou  pufiest  at,  the  highest- 
honoured,  hc'ttest- hated  of  the  world,  centre  of  man- 
kind's regard  and  debate,  but  thou,  and  thy  king  and 
all  the  glory  of  your  empire  wrapped  deep  in  oblivion. 
To  this  little  fortress  of  highland  men  shall  the  heart  of 
great  peoples  turn  :  kings  for  its  nursing-fathers  and 
queens    for    its    nursing-mothers,    the    forces    of    the 


xxxvi.]  THE  RABSHAKEH.  349 

Gentiles  sIkiII  come  to  it,  and  from  it  new  civilisations 
take  their  laws ;  while  thou  and  all  thy  parapher- 
nalia disappear  into  blackness,  haunted  only  by  the 
antiquary,  the  world  taking  an  interest  in  thee  just 
in  so  far  as  thou  didst  once  hopelessly  attempt  to 
understand  Jerusalem  and  capture  her  faith  by  thine 
own  interpretation  of  it.  Curious  pigmy,  very  grand 
thou  thinkest  thyself,  and  surely  with  some  right 
as  delegate  of  the  king  of  kings,  parading  thy  clever- 
ness and  thy  bribes  before  these  poor  barbarians ; 
but  the  world,  called  to  look  upon  you  both  from  this 
eminence  of  history,  grants  thee  to  be  a  very  good 
head  of  an  intelligence  department,  with  a  couple  of 
languages  on  thy  glib  tongue's  end,  but  adjudges  that 
with  the  starved  and  speechless  men  before  thee  lies 
the  secret  of  all  that  is  worth  living  and  dying  for  in 
this  world. 

The  Rabshakeh's  plausible  futility  and  Jerusalem's 
faith,  greatly  distressed  before  him,  are  typical.  Still  as 
men  hang  moodily  over  the  bulwarks  of  Zion,  doubtful 
whether  life  is  worth  living  within  the  narrow  limits 
which  religion  prescribes,  or  righteousness  worth  fight- 
ing for  with  such  privations  and  hope  deferred,  comes 
upon  them  some  elegant  and  plausible  temptation,  loudly 
calling  to  give  the  whole  thing  up.  Disregarding  the 
official  arguments  and  evidences  that  push  forward  to 
parley,  it  speaks  home  in  practical  tones  to  men's  real 
selves — their  appetites  and  selfishnesses.  "You  are 
foolish  fellows,"  it  sa3^s,  "  to  confine  yourselves  to  such 
narrowness  of  life  and  self-denial !  The  fall  of  your 
faith  is  only  a  matter  of  time  :  otiier  creeds  have  gone ; 
yours  must  follow.  And  why  fight  the  world  for  the 
sake  of  an  idea,  or  from  the  habits  of  a  discipline  ? 
Such   things    only  starve    the  human   spirit ;    and  the 


350  THE  BOOK   OF  [SAIAII. 

world  is  so  generous,  so  free  to  every  one,  so  tolerant 
of  each  enjoying  his  own,  unhampered  by  authority 
or  religion." 

In   our  day  what  has  the  greatest  effect  on  the  faith 
of  many  men    is  just  this    mixture,  that  pervades  the 
R.abshakeh's  address, — of  a  superior  culture  pretending 
to    expose    religion,  with    the    easy    generosity,    which 
offers    to    the    individual  a  selfish    life,  unchecked   by 
any   discipline  or   religious    fear.     That  modern  Rab- 
shakeh,    Ernest   Renan,   with   the  forces   of   historical 
criticism  at  his  back,  but  confident  rather  in  his  own 
skill    of    address,    speaking    to    us    believers    as    poor 
picturesque    provincials,   patronising    our    Deity,    and 
telling  us  that  he   knows   His   intentions    better  than 
we    do    ourselves,    is  a    very    good    representative    of 
the  enemies  of  the  Faith,  who  owe   their  impressive- 
ness  upon  common  men  to  the  familiarity  they  display 
with  the  contents  of  the  Faith,  and  the  independent,  easy 
life  they  offer  to  the  man  who  throws  his  strict  faith  off. 
Superior  knowledge,  with  the  offer  on  its   lips  of  a  life 
on    good    terms    with    the    rich    and    toleiant    world 
— pretence    of  promising    selfishness — that   is   to-day, 
as    then    under    the    walls    of  Jerusalem,    the    typical 
enemy  of   the  Faith.     But  if  faith  be  held   simply  as 
the    silent   garrison   of  Jerusalem    held    it,  faith    in    \ 
Lord  God  of  righteousness,  who  has  given  us  a  con- 
science to  serve  Him,  and  has  spoken  to  us  in  plain  ex- 
planation of  this  by  those  whom  we  can  see,  understand 
and  trust — not    only  by  an  Isaiah,  but  by    a  Jesus — ■• 
then  neither  mere  cleverness   nor    the  ability  to   pro- 
mise comfort  can  avail    against  our  faith.      A   simple 
conscience  of  God  and  of  duty  may  not  be  able  to  answer 
subtle  arguments  word  for  word,   but  she  can  feel  the 
incongruity  of  their  cleverness  with  her  own  precious 


xvi.]  THE   RABSHAKEH.  .  351 


secret ;  she  can  at  least  expose  the  fallacy  of  their 
sensuous  promises  of  an  untroubled  life.  No  man,  who 
tempts  us  from  a  good  conscience  with  God  in  the  dis- 
cipline of  our  religion  and  the  comradeship  of  His  people, 
can  ensure  that  there  will  be  no  starvation  in  the  pride 
of  life,  no  captivity  in  the  easy  tolerance  of  the  world. 
To  the  heart  of  man  there  will  always  be  captivity  in 
selfishness ;  there  will  alvva}' s  be  exile  in  unbelief. 
Even  where  the  romance  and  sentiment  of  faith  are 
retained,  after  the  manner  of  Renan,  it  is  only  to  mock 
us  with  mirage.  As  in  a  dry  and  thirsty  land,  where  no 
water  is,  our  heart  and  flesh  shall  cry  out  for  the  living 
God,  as  we  have  aforetime  seen  Him  in  the  sanctuary. 
The  land,  in  which  the  tempter  promises  a  life  undis- 
turbed by  religious  restraints,  is  not  our  home,  neither  is 
it  freedom.  By  the  conscience  that  is  in  us,  God  has  set 
us  on  the  walls  of  faith,  with  His  law  to  observe,  with 
His  people  to  stand  by  ;  and  against  us  are  the  world  and 
its  tempters,  with  all  their  v^'ilcs  to  be  defied.  If  we  go 
down  from  the  charge  and  shelter  of  so  simple  a  religion, 
then,  whatever  enjoyment  we  have,  we  shall  enjoy  it  only 
with  the  fears  of  the  deserter  and  the  greed  of  the  slave. 
In  spite  of  scorn  and  sensuous  promise  from  Rab- 
shakeh  to  Renan,  let  us  lift  the  hymn  which  these 
silent  Jews  at  last  lifted  from  the  walls  of  their  delivered 
city  :  Walk  about  Zion  and  go  round  about  her;  tell  ye 
the  towers  thereof  Mark  ye  well  her  hulzvarks,  and  con- 
sider her  palaces,  that  ye  may  tell  it  to  the  generation  to 
come.  For  this  God  is  our  God  for  ever  and  ever.  He 
will  be  our  Guide  even  unto  death. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THIS  IS  THE  VICTORY.  .  .  .  OUR  FAITH. 

Isaiah  xxxvii.  (701  B.C.). 

WITHIN  the  fortress  of  the  faith  there  is  only 
silence  and  embarrassment.  We  pass  from 
the  Rabshakeh,  posing  outside  the  walls  of  Zion,  to 
Hezekiah,  prostrate  within  them.  We  pass  with  the 
distracted  councillors,  by  the  walls  crowded  with  moody 
and  silent  soldiers,  many  of  them — if  this  be  the 
meaning  of  the  king's  command  that  they  should  not 
parley — only  too  ready  to  yield  to  the  plausible  infidel. 
We  are  astonished.  '  Has  faith  nothing  to  sa}'  for 
herself?  Have  this  people  of  so  long  Divine  inspira- 
tion no  habit  of  self-possession,  no  argument  in 
answer  to  the  irrelevant  attacks  of  their  enemy  ? 
Where  are  the  traditions  of  Moses  and  Joshua,  the 
songs  of  Deborah  and  David  ?  Can  men  walk  about 
Zion,  and  their  very  footsteps  on  her  walls  ring  out  no 
defiance  ? 

Hezekiah's  complaint  reminds  us  that  in  this  silence 
and  distress  we  have  no  occasional  perplexity  of 
faith,  but  her  perpetual  burden.  Faith  is  inarticulate 
because  of  her  greatness.  Faith  is  courageous  and 
imaginative ;  but  can  she  convert  her  confidence  and 
visions  into  fact  ?  Said  Hezekiah,  This  is  a  day  of 
trouble,  and  rebuke  and  contumely,  for  the  children  are 


xxxvii.]     THIS  IS   THE    VICTORY  ....  OUR  FAITH.      353 

come  to  the  birth,  and  there  is  not  strength  to  bring 
thcni  forth.  These  words  are  not  a  mere  metaphor 
for  anguish.  They  are  the  definition  of  a  real  mis- 
carriage. In  Isaiah's  contemporaries  faith  has  at  last 
engendered  courage,  zeal  for  God's  house  and  strong 
assurance  of  victory  ;  but  she,  that  has  proved  fertile 
to  conceive  and  carry  these  confidences,  is  powerless  to 
bring  them  forth  into  real  life,  to  transform  them  to 
actual  fact.  Faith,  complains  Hezekiah,  is  not  the 
suljstance  of  things  hoped  for.  At  the  moment  when 
her  subjective  assurances  ought  to  be  realized  as  facts, 
she  is  powerless  to  bring  them  to  the  birth. 

It  is  a  miscarriage  we  are  always  deploring.  Words- 
worth has  said,  "  Through  love,  through  hope,  through 
faith's  transcendent  dower,  we  feel  that  we  are  greater 
than  we  know."  Yes,  greater  than  we  can  articulate, 
greater  than  we  can  tell  to  men  like  the  Rabshakeh,  even 
though  he  talk  the  language  of  the  Jews;  and  therefore, 
on  the  whole,  it  is  best  to  be  silent  in  face  of  his 
argument.  But  greater  also,  we  sometimes  fear,  than 
we  can  realise  to  ourselves  in  actual  character  and 
victory.  All  life  thrills  with  the  pangs  of  inability  to 
bring  the  children  of  faith  to  the  birth  of  experience. 
The  man,  who  has  lost  his  faith  or  who  fakes  his  faith 
easily,  never  knows,  of  course,  this  anguish  of  Hezekiah. 
But  the  more  we  have  fed  on  the  promises  of  the  Bible, 
the  more  that  the  Spirit  of  God  has  engendered  in  our 
pure  hearts  assurances  of  justice  and  of  peace,  the  more 
we  shall  sometimes  tremble  with  the  fear  that  in  out- 
ward fact  there  is  no  life  for  these  beautiful  conceptions 
of  the  soul.  Do  we  really  believe  in  the  Father- 
hood of  God — believe  in  it  till  it  has  changed  us 
inwardly,  and  we  carry  a  new  sense  of  destiny,  a  new 
conscience  of  justice,  a  new  disgust  of  sin,  a  new  pity 

VOL.  I.  23 


354  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAII. 

for  pain  ?  Then  how  full  of  the  anguish  of  impotence 
must  our  souls  feel  when  they  consciously  survey  one 
day  of  common  life  about  us,  or  when  we  honestly  look 
back  on  a  year  of  our  own  conduct  !  Does  it  not  s::em 
as  if  upon  one  or  two  hideous  streets  in  some  centre  of 
our  civilisation  all  Christianity,  with  its  eighteen  hun- 
dred years  of  promise  and  impetus,  had  gone  to  wreck  ? 
Is  God  only  for  the  im;igination  of  man  ?  Is  there  no 
God  outwardly  to  control  and  grant  victory?  Is  Me 
onl}'-  a  Voice,  and  not  the  Creator  ?  Is  Christ  only  a 
Prophet,  and  not  the  King  ? 

And  then  over  these  disappointments  there  faces  us 
all  the  great  miscarriage  itself — black,  inevitable  death. 
Hezekiah  cried  from  despair  that  the  Divine  assurance 
of  the  permanence  of  God's  people  in  the  world  was 
about  to  be  Vv'recked  on  fact.  But  often  by  a  death- 
bed we  utter  the  same  lament  about  the  individual's 
immortality.  There  is  everything  to  prove  a  future 
life  except  the  fact  of  it  within  human  experience. 
This  life  is  big  with  hopes,  instincts,  convictions  of  im- 
mortality ;  and  yet  where  within  our  sight  have  these 
ever  passed  to  the  birth  of  fact  ?  *  Death  is  a  great 
miscarriage.  The  diildrcn  have  come  to  the  birtli,  and 
there  is  not  strength  to  bring  them  forth. 

And  yet  within  the  horizon  of  this  life  at  least — ^^the 
latter  part  of  the  difficulty  we  postpone  to  another 
chapter — faith  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for^  as 
Isaiah  did  now  most  brilliantly  prove.  For  the  miracle 
of  Jerusalem's  deliverance,  to  which  the  narrative 
proceeds,  was  not  that  by  faith  the  prophet  foretold 
it,  but  that  by  faith  he  did  actually  himself  succeed  in 
bringing  it  to  pass.     The  miracle,  we  sa}',  was  not  that 


*  Cf.  Browning's  La  Saisiaz. 


xxxvii.]     THIS  IS    THE    VICTORY  ....  OUR  FAITH.      355 

Isaiah  made  accurate  prediction  of  the  city's  speedy 
relief  from  the  Assyrian,  but  far  more  that  upon  his 
sohtary  steadfastness,  without  aid  of  battle,  he  did 
carry  her  disheartened  citizens  through  this  crisis  of 
temptation,  and  kept  them,  though  silent,  to  their  walls 
till  the  futile  Assyrian  drifted  away.  The  prediction, 
indeed,  was  not,  although  its  terms  appear  exact,  so 
very  marvellous  for  a  prophet  to  make,  who  had  Isaiah's 
religious  conviction  that  Jerusalem  must  survive  and 
Isaiah's  practical  acquaintance  with  the  politics  of  the 
day.  Behold,  I  am  setting  in  him  a  spirit ;  and  he  shall 
hear  a  rumour,  and  shall  return  into  his  own  land.  We 
may  recall  the  parallel  case  of  Charlemagne  in  his  cam- 
paign against  the  Moors  in  Spain,  from  which  he  was 
suddenly  and  unseasonably  hastened  north  on  a  dis- 
astrous retreat  by  news  of  the  revolt  of  the  Saxons.* 
In  the  vast  Assyrian  territories  rebellions  were  con- 
stantly occurring,  that  demanded  the  swift  appearance 
of  the  king  himself;  and  God's  Spirit,  to  whose  inspira- 
tion Isaiah  traced  all  pohtical  perception,  suggested 
to  him  the  possibility  of  one  of  these.  In  the  end» 
the  Bible  story  implies  that  it  was  not  a  rumour  from 
some  far-away  quarter  so  much  as  a  disaster  here  in 


*A  still  more  striking  analogy  may  be  found  in  the  case  of 
Napoleon  I.  when  in  the  East  in  1799.  He  had  just  achieved  a 
small  victory  which  partly  masked  the  previous  failure  of  his 
campaign,  when  "Sir  Sydney  Smith  now  contrived  that  he  should 
receive  a  packet  of  journals,  by  which  he  was  informed  of  all  tliat 
had  passed  recently  in  Europe  and  the  disasters  that  France  had 
suffered.  His  resolution  was  immediately  taken.  On  August  22nd 
he  wrote  to  Kleber  announcing  that  he  transferred  to  him  the 
command  of  the  expedition,  and  that  he  himself  would  return  to 
Europe..  .  .  After  carefully  spreading  false  accounts  of  his  intentions, 
he  set  sail  on  the  night  of  the  same  day"  (Professor  Seeley,  article 
"  Napoleon  "  in  the  Fricy.  Brit.), 


356  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

Syria,  which  compelled  Sennacherib's  "retreat  from 
Moscow."  But  it  is  possible  that  both  causes  were  at 
w^ork,  and  that  as  Napoleon  offered  the  receipt  of  news 
from  Paris  as  his  reason  for  hurriedly  abandoning  the 
unfortunate  Spanish  campaign  of  1808,  so  Sennacherib 
made  the  rumour  of  some  news  from  his  capital  or  the 
north  the  occasion  for  turning  his  troops  from  a  theatre 
of  war,  where  they  had  not  met  with  unequivocal 
success,  and  had  at  last  been  half  destroyed  by  the 
plague.  Isaiah's  further  prediction  of  Sennacherib's 
death  must  also  be  taken  in  a  general  sense,  for  it  was 
not  till  twenty  years  later  that  the  Assyrian  tyrant  met 
this  violent  end  :  /  will  cause  him  to  fall  by  the  sword  in 
his  otvn  land.  But  do  not  let  us  waste  our  attention 
on  the  altogether  minor  point  of  the  prediction  of  Jeru- 
salem's deliverance,  when  the  great  wonder,  of  which 
the  prediction  is  but  an  episode,  lies  lengthened  and 
manifest  before  us — that  Isaiah,  when  all  the  defenders 
of  Jerusalem  were  distracted  and  her  king  prostrate, 
did  by  the  single  steadfastness  of  his  spirit  sustain  her 
inviolate,  and  procure  for  her  people  a  safe  and  glorious 
future. 

The  baffled  Rabshakeh  returned  to  his  master, 
whom  he  found  at  Libnah,  for  he  had  heard  that  he 
had  broken  up  from  Lachish.  Sennacherib,  the 
narrative  would  seem  to  imply,  did  not  trouble 
himself  further  about  Jerusalem  till  he  learned  that 
Tirhakah,  the  Ethiopian  ruler  of  Egypt,  was  marching 
to  meet  him  with  probably  a  stronger  force  than  that 
which  Sennacherib  had  defeated  at  Eltekeh.  Then, 
feeling  the  danger  of  leaving  so  strong  a  fortress  as 
Jerusalem  in  his  rear,  Sennacherib  sent  to  Hezekiah  one 
more  demand  for  surrender.  Hezekiah  spread  his 
enemy's  letter  before  the  Lord.     His  prayer  that  follows 


xxxvii.]     THIS  IS   THE  VICTORY  ....  OUR  FAITH.      357 

is  remarkable  for  two  features,  which  enable  us  to  see  how 
pure  and  elevated  a  monotheism  God's  Spirit  had  at  last 
developed  from  the  national  faith  of  Israel.  The  Being 
"vhom  the  king  now  seeks  he  addresses  by  the  familiar 
r.Ame  Jehovah  of  hosts,  God  of  Israel,  and  describes  by 
the  physical  figure — who  art  enthroned  upon  the  chcridnm. 
But  he  .conceives  of  this  God  with  the  utmost  loftiness 
and  purit}',  ascribing  to  Him  not  only  sovereignty  and 
creatorship,  but  absolute  singularity  of  Godhead.  We 
have  but  to  compare  Hezekiah's  prayer  with  the  utter- 
ances of  his  predecessor  Ahaz,  to  whom  many  gods 
were  real,  and  none  absolutely  sovereign,  or  with  the 
utterances  of  Israelites  far  purer  than  Ahaz,  to  whom 
the  gods  of  the  nations,  though  inferior  to  Jehovah, 
were  yet  real  existences,  in  order  to  mark  the  spiritual 
advance  made  by  Israel  under  Isaiah.  It  is  a  tribute  to 
the  prophet's  force,  which  speaks  volume?,  when  the 
deputation  from  Hezckiah  talk  to  him  of  thy  God  (ver.  4). 
For  Isaiah  by  his  ministry  had  made  Israel's  God  to  be 
new  in  Israel's  eyes. 

Hezekiah's  lofty  prayer  drew  forth  through  the  prophet 
an  answer  from  Jehovah  (vv.  21 — 32).  This  is  one  of 
the  most  brilliant  of  Isaiah's  oracles.  It  is  full  of  much, 
with  which  we  are  now  familiar :  the  triumph  of  the 
inviolable  fortress,  the  virgin  daughter  of  Zion,  and  her 
scorn  of  the  arrogant  foe;  the  prophet's  appreciation  of 
Asshur's  power  and  impetus,  which  only  heightens  his 
conviction  that  Asshur  is  but  an  instrument  in  the  hand 
of  God ;  the  old  figure  of  the  enemy's  sudden  check  as 
of  a  wild  animal  by  hook  and  bridle ;  his  inevitable 
retreat  to  the  north.  But  these  familiar  ideas  are  flung 
off  with  a  terseness  and  vivacit}'-,  which  bear  out  the 
opinion  that  here  we  have  a  prophecy  of  Isaiah,  not 
revised  and  elaborated  for  subsequent  publication,  like 


358  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

the  rest  of  his  book,  but  in  its  original  form,  struck  quickly 
forth  to  meet  the  city's  sudden  and  urgent  prayer. 

The  new  feature  of  this  prophecy  is  the  sign  ad  led  to 
it  (ver.  30).  This  sign  reminds  us  of  that  which  in 
opposite  terms  described  to  Ahaz  the  devastation  of 
Judah  by  the  approaching  Assyrians  (chap.  vii.).  The 
wave  of  Assyrian  war  is  about  to  roll  away  again,  and 
Judah  to  resume  her  neglected  agriculture,  but  not  quite 
immediately.  During  this  year  of  70 1  it  has  been 
impossible,  with  the  Assyrians  in  the  land,  to  sow  the 
seed,  and  the  Jews  have  been  dependent  on  the  pre- 
carious crop  of  what  had  fallen  from  the  harvest  of  the 
previous  year  and  sown  itself — sapJiiah,  or  afiergroivlh. 
Next  year,  it  being  now  too  late  to  sow  for  next  year's 
harvest,  they  must  be  content  with  the  shahis — wild  corn, 
that  which  springs  of  itself .  But  the  third  year  sow  ye, 
and  reap,  and  plant  vineyards  and  eat  the  fruit  thereof. 
Perhaps  we  ought  not  to  interpret  these  numbers 
literally.  The  use  of  three  gives  the  statement  a  formal 
and  general  aspect,  as  if  the  prophet  only  meant.  It  may 
be  not  quite  at  once  that  we  get  rid  of  the  Assyrians ; 
but  when  they  do  go,  then  they  go  for  good,  and  you 
may  till  your  land  again  without  fear  of  their  return. 
Then  rings  out  the  old  promise,  so  soon  now  to  be 
accomplished,  about  the  escaped  and  the  remnant ;  and 
the  great  pledge  of  the  promise  is  once  more  repeated  : 
The  zeal  of  Jehovah  of  hosts  will  perform  this.  With 
this  exclamation,  as  in  ix,  7,  the  prophecy  reaches  a 
natural  conclusion;  and  vv.  33 — 35  m^ay  have  been 
uttered  by  Isaiah  a  little  later,  when  he  was  quite  sure 
that  the  Assyrian  would  not  even  attempt  to  repeat  his 
abandoned  blockade  of  Jerusalem. 

At  last  in  a  single  night  the  deliverance  miraculously 


xxsvii.]     THIS  IS   THE  VICTORY  ....  OUR  FAITH.      35 j 


came.  It  is  implied  by  the  scattered  accounts  of  those 
days  of  salvation,  that  an  Assyrian  corps  continued  to 
sit  before  Jerusalem  even  after  the  RabsL  ikeh  had  re- 
turned to  the  headquarters  of  Sennacherib.  The  thirty- 
third  of  Isaiah,  as  well  as  those  Psalms  which  celebrate 
the  Assyrian's  disappearance  from  Judah,  describe  it  as 
having  taken  place  from  under  the  walls  of  Jerusalem 
and  the  astonished  eyes  of  her  guardians.  It  was  not, 
however,  upon  this  force — perhaps  little  more  than  a 
brigade  of  observation  (xxxiii.  18) — that  the  calamity 
fell  which  drove  Sennacherib  so  suddenly  from  Syria. 
And  there  went  forth  {that  night,  adds  the  book  of  Kings) 
the  angel  0/ Jehovah  ;  and  he  smote  in  the  camp  of  Assyria 
one  hundred  and  eighty-five  thousand;  and  when  the  camp 
arose  in  the  morning,  behold  all  of  them  zvere  corpses,  dead 
men.  And  Sennacherib,  King  of  As':yria,  broke  up,  and 
returned  and  divclt  in  Nineveh.  Had  this  pestilence 
dispersed  the  camp  that  lay  before  Jerusalem,  and  left 
beneath  the  walls  so  considerable  a  number  of  corpses, 
the  exclamations  of  surprise  at  the  sudden  disappearance 
of  Ass^Tia,  which  occur  in  Isa.  xxxiii.  and  in  Psalms 
xlviii.  and  Ixxvi.,  could  hardly  have  failed  to  betray  the 
fact.  But  these  simply  speak  of  vague  /ro^/A/^  coining 
upon  tlicm  that  zvere  assembled  about  Zion,  and  of  their 
swift  decampment.  The  trouble  was  the  news  of  the 
calamity,  whose  victims  were  the  main  body  of  the 
Assyrian  army,  who  had  been  making  for  the  borders 
of  Egypt,  but  were  now  scattered  northwards  like  chaff 
For  details  of  this  disaster  we  look  in  vain,  of  course- 
to  the  Assyrian  annals,  which  only  record  Sennacherib's 
abrupt  return  to  Nineveh.  But  it  is  remarkable  that 
the  histories  of  both  of  his  Ciiief  riv:Js  in  this  campaign, 
Judah  and  Egypt,  should  contain  independent  remi- 
niscences of  so  sudden  and  miraculous  a  disaster  to  his 


Sf'O  THE  BOOK  OF  IS. UAH. 

host.  From  Egyptian  sources  there  has  come  down 
through  Herodotus  (ii.  14),  a  story  that  a  king  of  Egypt, 
being  deserted  by  the  mihtary  caste,  when  "Sennacherib 
King  of  the  Arabs  and  Assyrians  "  invaded  his  country, 
entered  his  sanctuary  and  appealed  with  weeping  to  his 
god ;  that  the  god  appeared  and  cheered  him  ;  that 
he  raised  an  army  of  artisans  and  marched  to  meet 
Sennacherib  in  Pelusium  ;  that  by  night  a  multitude  of 
field-mice  ate  up  the  quivers,  bow-strings  and  shield- 
straps  of  the  Assyrians  ;  and  that,  as  these  fled  on  the 
morrow,  very  man}^  of  them  fell.  A  stone  statue  of  the 
king,  adds  Herodotus,  stood  in  the  temple  of  Hephaestus, 
having  a  mouse  in  the  hand.  Now,  since  the  mouse 
was  a  symbol  of  sudden  destruction,  and  even  of  the 
plague,  this  story  of  Herodotus  seems  to  be  merely 
a  picturesque  form  of  a  tradition  that  pestilence  broke 
out  in  the  Assyrian  camp.  The  parallel  with  the  Bible 
narrative  is  close.  In  both  accounts  it  is  a  p>ra3'er  of 
the  king  that  prevails.  In  both  the  Deity  sends  His 
agent — in  the  grotesque  Eg^'ptian  an  army  of  mice, 
in  the  sublime  Jewish  His  angel.  In  both  the  effects 
are  sudden,  happening  in  a  single  night.  From  the 
Assyrian  side  we  have  this  corroboration  :  that  Sen- 
nacherib did  abruptl}'  return  to  Nineveh  without  taking 
Jerusalem  or  meeting  with  Tirhakah,  and  that,  though 
he  reigned  for  twenty  years  more,  he  never  again  made 
a  Syrian  campaign.  Sennacherib's  convenient  story  of 
his  return  may  be  compared  to  the  ambiguous  account 
which  Caesar  gives  of  his  first  withdrawal  from  Britain, 
laying  emphasis  on  the  submission  of  the  tribes  as  his 
reason  for  a  swift  return  to  France — a  return  which  was 
rather  due  to  the  destruction  of  his  fleet  by  storm  and 
the  consequent  uneasiness  of  his  army.  Or,  as  we  have 
alrcad}^  said,  Sennacherib's  account  may  be  compared 


xxxvii.]     THIS  IS   THE  VICTORY  ....  OVR  FAITH.      361 

to  Napoleon's  professed  reason  for  liis  sudden  abandon- 
ment of  his  Spanish  campaign  and  his  quick  return  to 
Paris  in  1 808. 

The  neighbourhood  in  which  the  Assyrian  army 
suffered  this  great  disaster  *  was  notorious  in  an- 
tiquity for  its  power  of  pestilence.  Making  every 
allowance  for  the  untutored  imagination  of  the  ancientS; 
we  must  admit  the  Serbonian  bog,  between  Syria  and 
Egypt,  to  have  been  a  place  terrible  for  filth  and 
miasma.  The  noxious  vapours  travelled  far ;  but  the 
plagues,  with  which  this  swamp  several  times  desolated 
the  world,  were  first  engendered  among  the  diseased 
and  demoralised  populations,  whose  villages  festered 
upon  its  margin.  A  Persian  army  was  decimated 
here  in  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century  before  Christ. 
"  The  fatal  disease  which  depopulated  the  earth  in  the 
time  of  Justinian  and  his  successors  first  appeared  in 
the  neig'ibourhood  of  Pelusium,  between  the  Serbonian 
bog  and  the  eastern  channel  of  the  Nile."!  To  the 
north  of  the  bog  the  Crusaders  also  suffered  from  the 
infection.  It  is,  therefore,  very  probable  that  the  moral 
terror  of  this  notorious  neighbourhood,  as  well  as  its 
malaria,  acting  upon  an  exhausted  and  disappointed 
army  in  a  devastated  land,  was  the  secondary  cause  in 
the  great  disaster,  by  which  the  Almighty  humbled  the 
arrogance  of  Asshur.  The  swiftness,  with  which 
Sennacherib's  retreat  is  said  to  have  begun,  has  been 


*  The  statement  of  the  Egyptian  legend,  that  it  was  from  a  point 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Pelusium  that  Sennacherib's  army  com- 
menced its  retreat,  is  not  contradicted  by  anything  in  tlie  Jewish 
records,  which  leave  the  locality  of  the  disaster  very  vague,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  receives  some  support  from  what  Isaiali  expresses 
as  at  least  tlie  intention  of  Sennacherib   (chap,  xxxvii.  25). 

■j"  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall,  xliii. 


3^2  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

equalled  by  the  turning-points  of  other  historical  cam- 
paigns. Alexander  the  Great's  decision  to  withdraw 
from  India  was,  after  victories  as  man}^  as  Sennacherib's, 
made  in  three  days.  Attila  vanished  out  of  Italy  as 
suddenly  as  Sennacherib,  and  from  a  motive  less  evident. 
Iij  the  famous  War  of  the  Fosse  the  Meccan  army 
broke  off  from  their  siege  of  Mohammed  in  a  single 
stormy  night.  Napoleon's  career  went  back  upon 
itself  with  just  as  sharp  a  bend  no  less  than  thrice — 
in  1799,  on  Sennacherib's  own  ground  in  Syria  ;  in  1808, 
in  Spain;  and  in  18 12,  when  he  turned  from  Moscow 
upon  "one  memorable  night  of  frost,  in  which  twenty 
ihousand  horses  perished,  and  the  strength  of  the  French 
army  was  utterly  broken."  * 

The  amount  of  the  Assyrian  loss  is  enormous,  and 
implies  of  course  a  much  higher  figure  for  the  army 
which  was  vast  enough  to  suffer  it ;  but  here  are  some 
instances  for  comparison.  In  the  early  German  inva- 
sions of  Italy  whole  armies  and  camps  were  swept  away 
by  the  pestilential  climate.  The  losses  of  the  First 
Crusade  were  over  three  hundred  thousand.  The  soldiers 
of  the  Third  Crusade,  upon  the  scene  of  Sennacherib's 
war,  were  reckoned  at  more  than  half  a  million,  and  their 
losses  by  disease  alone  at  over  one  hundred  thousand. f 
T  he  Grand  Army  of  Napoleon  entered  Russia  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand,  but  came  out,  having 
suffered  no  decisive  defeat,  only  twelve  thousand;  on  the 
retreat  from  Moscow  alone  ninety  thousand  perished. 

What  we  are  concerned  with,  however,  is  neither 
the  immediate  occasion  nor  the  exact  amount  of 
Sennacherib's    loss,    but   the    bare    fact,    so    certainly 

*  Arnold,  Lcchircs  on  Mi.dern  History,   177,  quoted  by  Stanley. 
^  Gibbon,  xlii.  ;  lix. 


xxxvii.]     THIS  IS   THE    VICTORY  ....  OUR  FAITH.      363 

established,  that,  having  devastated  Judah  to  the  very 
walls  of  Jerusalem,  the  Assyrian  was  compelled  by 
some  calamity  apart  from  human  war  to  withdraw 
before  the  sacred  city  itself  was  taken.  For  this  was 
the  essential  part  of  Isaiah's  prediction ;  upon  this  he 
had  staked  the  credit  of  the  pure  monotheism,  whose 
prophet  he  was  to  the  world.  If  we  keep  before  us 
these  two  simple  certainties  about  the  great  Deliver- 
ance :  first,  that  it  had  been  foretold  by  Jehovah's 
word,  and  second,  that  it  had  been  now  achieved,  despite 
all  human  probability,  by  Jehovah's  own  arm,  we  shall 
understand  the  enormous  spiritual  impression  which  it 
left  upon  Israel.  The  religion  of  the  one  supreme  God, 
supreme  in  might  because  supreme  in  righteousness, 
received  a  most  emphatic  historical  vindication,  a  signal 
and  glorious  triumph.  Well  might  Isaiah  exclaim,  on 
the  morning  of  the  niglit  during  which  that  Assyrian 
host  had  drifted  away  from  Jerusalem,  Jehovah  is  our 
Judge;  JeJiovaJi  is  our  Laivgiver ;  feJiovah  is  our  Ki)ig: 
He  savctJi  us.  No  other  god  for  the  present  had  any 
ihance  in  Judah.  Idolatry  was  discredited,  not  by  the 
political  victory  of  a  puritan  faction,  not  even  by  the 
distinctive  genius  or  valour  of  a  nation,  but  by  an 
evident  act  of  Providence,  to  which  no  human  aid  had 
been  contributory.  It  was  nothing  less  than  the  bap- 
ti-^)m  of  Israel  in  spiritual  religion,  the  grace  of  which 
was  never  wholly  undone. 

Neverthel  ss,  the  story  of  Jehovah's  triumph  cannot 
be  justly  recounted  without  including  the  reaction 
which  followed  upon  it  within  the  same  generation. 
Before  twenty  years  had  passed  from  the  day,  on  which 
Jerusalem,  with  the  forty-sixth  Psalm  on  her  lips, 
sought  with  all  her  heart  the  Cod  of  Isaiah,  she  relapsed 
into  an  idolatry,  that  wore  only  this  sign  of  the  uncuui- 


SC^  THE  BOOK  OP  ISAIAM. 

prrmising  puritanism  it  liad  displaced :  that  it  was 
gloomy,  and  filled  with  a  sense  of  sin  unknown  to 
Israel's  idolatries  previous  to  the  age  of  Isaiah.  The 
change  would  be  almost  incomprehensible  to  us,  who 
have  realized  the  spiritual  effects  of  Sennacherib's 
disappearance,  if  we  had  not  within  our  own  history 
a  somewhat  analogous  experience.  Puritanism  was 
as  gloriously*  accredited  by  event  and  seemed  to  be 
as  generally  accepted  by  England  under  Cromwell  as 
faith  in  the  spiritual  religion  of  Isaiah  was  vindicated 
by  the  deliverance  of  Jerusalem  and  the  peace  of  Judah 
under  Hezekiah.  But  swiftly  as  the  ruling  temper 
in  England  changed  after  Cromwell's  death,  and  Puri- 
tanism was  laid  under  the  ban,  and  persecution  and 
licentiousness  broke  out,  so  quickly  when  Plezckiah 
died  did  Manassch  his  son — no  change  of  dynasty 
here — do  evil  in  the  sight  ofjcliovah,  and  make  Jiidali  to 
sin^  hidlding  again  the  high  places  and  rearing  np  aitars  for 
Baal  and  altars  in  the  house  of  Jehovah^  whereof  J cJiovah 
had  said,  In  Jerusalem  will  I  put  My  name.  Idolatry  was 
never  so  rampant  in  Judah.  Moreover,  Manasseh  shed 
innocent  blood  till  he  filled  Jerusalem  from  one  end  to 
another.  It  is  in  this  carnage  that  tradition  has  placed 
the  death  of  Isaiah.  He,  who  had  been  Judah's  best 
counsellor  through  five  reigns,  on  whom  the  whole 
nation  had  gathered  in  the  day  of  her  distress,  and  by 
whose  faith  lier  long-hoped-for  salvation  had  at  last  be- 
come substantive,  was  violently  put  to  death  by  the  son 
of  Hezekiah.     It  is  said  that  he  was  saivn  asunder* 

The  parallel,  which  we  are  pursuing,  does  not,  how- 
ever, close  here.  "  As  soon/'  says  an  English  historian, 
"as  the  wild  orgy  of  the  Restoration  was  over,  men  began 

*  ricb.  xi. 


xxxvii.]     THIS  IS    THE  VICTORY  ....  OUR  FAITH.      36- 

to  see  that  nothing  that  was  really  worthy  in  the  work 
of  Puritanism  had  been  undone.     The  whole  history  of 
English  progress  since   the  Restoration,  on  its  moral 
and  spiritual  sides,  has  been  the  history  of  Puritanism." 
For  the  principles  of  Isaiah  and  their  victory  we  may 
make  a  claim  as  much  larger  than  this  claim,  as  Israel's 
influence  on  the  world  has  been  greater  than  England's. 
Israel  never  wholly  lost  the  grace  of  the  baptism  where- 
with she  was  baptized  in  701.     Even  in  her  history  there 
was  no  event  in  which  the  unaided  interposition  of  God 
was  more  conspicuous.     It  is  from  an  appreciation  of 
the  meaning  of  such  a  Providence  that  Israel  derives 
her  character — that  character  which  marks  her  off  so 
distinctivel}'  from  her  great  rival  in  the  education  of  the 
human  race,  and  endows  her  ministry  with  its  peculiar 
value  to  the   world.     If  we  are  asked  for  the  charac- 
teristics of  the  Hellenic  genius,  we  point  to  the  august 
temples  and  images  of  beauty  in  which  the  wealth  and 
art    of   man    have    evolved    in    human    features    most 
glorious  suggestions  of  divinity,  or  we  point  to  Theimo- 
pylae,  where  human  valour  and  devotion  seem  grander 
even  in  unavailing  sacrifice  than  the  almighty  Fate,  that 
renders   them  the  prey  of  the   barbarian.     In  Greece 
the  human  is  greater   than  the  divine.     But  if  we  are 
asked  to  define  the  spirit  of  Israel,  we  remember  the 
worship    which    Isaiah    has    enjoined   in    his    opening 
chapter,  a  worship  that  dispenses  even  with  temple  and 
with  sacrifice,  but,  from  the  first  strivings  of  conscience 
to   the  most  certain   enjoyment  of  peace,  ascribes  all 
man's  experience  to  the  word  of  God.     In  contrast  with 
Thermopylae,  we  recall  Jerusalem's  Deliverance,  eff'ected 
apart  from  human  war  by  the  direct  stroke  of  Heaven. 
In  Judah  man  is  great  simply  as  he  rests  on  God.     The 
rocks  of  Thermopylae,  how  imperishably  beautiful  do 


366  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

they  shine  to  latest  ages  with  the  comradeship,  the 
valour,  the  sacrificial  blood  of  human  heroes  !  It  is 
another  beauty  which  Isaiah  saw  upon  the  bare,  dry 
rocks  of  Zion,  and  which  has  drawn  to  them  the  admira- 
tion of  the  world.  There,  he  said,  Jehovah  is  glory 
for  us,  a  place  of  broad  rivers  and  streams. 

In  returning  and  rest  shall  ye  he  saved ;  in  quietness 
and  ill  confidence  is  your  strength.  How  divine  Isaiah's 
message  is,  may  be  proved  by  the  length  of  time  mankind 
is  taking  to  learn  it.  The  remarkable  thing  is,  that  he 
staked  so  lofty  a  principle,  and  the  pure  religion  of 
which  it  was  the  temper,  upon  a  political  result,  that  he 
staked  them  upon,  and  vindicated  them  by,  a  purely  local 
and  mateiial  success— the  relief  of  Jerusalem  from  the 
infidel.  Centuries  passed,  and  Christ  came.  He  did 
not — for  even  He  could  not — preach  a  more  spiritual 
religion  than  that  which  He  had  committed  to  His 
greatest  forerunner,  but  He  released  this  religion,  and 
the  temper  of  faith  which  Isaiah  had  so  divinely  ex- 
pressed, fiom  the  local  associations  and  merely  national 
victories,  with  which  even  Isaiah  had  been  forced  to  iden- 
tify them.  The  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  the  hea'hen 
formed  a  large  part  of  Christ's  prediction  of  the  imme- 
diate future  ;  and  He  comforted  the  remnant  of  faith  with 
these  words,  to  some  of  which  Isaiah's  lips  had  first  given 
their  meaning  :  Ye  shall  neither  in  this  mountain  nor  yet 
in  Jerusalem  worship  the  FatJier.  God  is  a  Spirit,  and  they 
that  zvorship  Him  must  worship  Him  in  spirit  and  in  trutli. 

Again  centuries  passed — no  less  than  eighteen  from 
Isaiah — and  we  find  Christendom,  though  Christ  had 
come  between,  returning  to  Isaiah's  superseded  problem, 
and,  while  reviving  its  material  conditions,  unable  to 
apply  to    them    the    prophet's  spiritual   temper.      The 


xxxvii.]     THIS  IS    THE   VICTORY  ,  .  .  .  OUR  FAiTlI.      3G7 

Christianity  of  the  Crusades  fell  back  upon  Isaiah's 
position  without  his  spirit.  Like  him,  it  staked  the 
credit  of  religion  upon  the  reli>ef  of  the  holy  city  from 
the  grasp  of  the  infidel ;  but,  in  ghastly  contrast  to  that 
pure  faiih  and  serene  confidence  with  which  a  single 
Jew  maintained  the  inviolateness  of  Mount  Zion  in  the 
face  of  Assyria,  with  what  pride  and  fraud,  with  what 
blood  and  cruelty,  with  what  impious  invention  of 
miracle  and  parody  of  Divine  testimony,  did  countless 
armies  of  Christendom,  excited  by  their  most  fervent 
prophets  and  blessed  by  their  high-priest,  attempt 
in  vain  the  recovery  of  Jerusalem  from  the  Saracen  ! 
7"he  Crusades  are  a  gigantic  proof  of  how  easy  it  is  to 
a*;  pt  the  external  forms  of  heroic  ages,  how  difficult  to 
rejvat  their  inward  temper.  We  could  not  have  more 
impressive  witness  borne  to  the  fact  that  humanity^ 
though  obedient  to  the  orthodox  Church,  though  led  by 
the  stiongest  spirits  of  the  age,  though  hallowed  by  the 
presence  of  its  greatest  saints,  though  enduring  all 
trials,  though  exhibiting  an  unrivalled  power  of  self- 
sacrifice  and  enthusiasm,  though  beautified  by  courtesy 
and  chivalry,  and  though  doing  and  suffering  all 
for  Christ's  sake — may  yet  fail  to  understand  the  old 
precept  that  in  returning  and  rest  men  are  saved,  in  quiet- 
ness and  in  confidence  is  their  strength.  Nothing  couLl 
more  emphatically  prove  the  loftiness  of  Isaiah's  teach- 
ing than  this  failure  of  Christendom  even  to  come  within 
sight  of  it. 

Have  we  learned  this  lei;son  yet?  O  God  of  Israel,  God 
of  Isaiah,  in  returning  to  whom  and  resting  upon  whom 
alone  we  are  saved,  purge  us  of  self  and  of  the  pride  of 
life,  of  the  fever  and  the  falsehood  they  breed.  Teach 
us  that  in  cjuietness  and  in  confidence  is  our  strength. 
Help  us  to  be  still  and  know  that  Thou  art  God. 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

A   REVIEW   OF   ISAIAH'S    PREDICTIONS    CONCERNING 
THE  DELIVERANCE  OF  JERUSALEM. 

AS  we  have  gathered  together  all  that  Isaiah 
prophesied  concerning  the  Messiah,  so  it  may 
be  useful  for  closer  students  of  his  book  if  we  nov/ 
summarise  (even  at  the  risk  of  a  little  repetition) 
the  facts  of  his  marvellous  prediction  of  the  siege  and 
delivery  of  Jerusalem.  Such  a  review,  besides  being 
historically  interesting,  ought  to  prove  of  edification 
in  so  far  as  it  instructs  us  in  the  kind  of  faith  by 
which  the  Holy  Ghost  inspired  a  prophet  to  foretell  the 
future. 

1.  The  primary  conviction  with  which  Isaiah  felt 
himself  inspired  by  the  Spirit  of  Jehovah  was  a  purely 
moral  one — that  a  devastation  of  Judah  was  necessary 
for  her  people's  sin,  to  which  he  shortly  added  a  religious 
one :  that  a  remnant  would  be  saved.  He  had  this 
double  conviction  as  early  as  740  B.C.  (vi.  11 — 13). 

2.  Looking  round  the  horizon  for  some  phenomenon 
with  which  to  identify  this  promised  judgement,  Isaiah 
described  the  latter  at  first  without  naming  any  single 
people  as  the  invaders  of  Judah  (v.  26  ff.).  It  may  have 
been  that  for  a  moment  he  hesitated  between  Assyria 
and  Egypt.  Once  he  named  them  together  as 
equally   the  Lord's  instruments  upon  Judah  (vii.   18), 


ISAIAH'S  PREDICTIONS.  ,  369 

but  only  once.  When  Ahaz  resolved  to  call  Assyria  into 
the  Syrian  quarrels,  Isaiah  exclusively  designated  the 
northern  power  as  the  scourge  he  had  predicted ;  and 
when  in  732  the  Assyrian  armies  had  overrun  Samaria, 
he  graphically  described  their  necessary  overflow  into 
Judah  also  (viii.).  This  invasion  did  not  spread  to 
Judah,  but  Isaiah's  combined  moral  and  political  con- 
viction, for  both  elements  of  which  he  claimed  the 
inspiration  of  God's  Spirit,  seized  him  with  renewed 
strength  in  725,  when  Salmanassar  marched  south  upon 
Israel  (xxviii.) ;  and  in  721,  when  Sargon  captured 
Samaria,  Isaiah  uttered  a  vivid  description  of  his  speedy 
arrival  before  Jerusalem  (x.  28  ff.).  This  prediction 
was  again  disappointed.  But  Sargon's  departure  without 
invading  Judah,  and  her  second  escape  from  him  on  his 
return  t-o  Syria  in  711,  did  not  in  the  least  induce  Isaiah 
to  relax  either  of  his  two  convictions.  Judah  he  pro- 
claimed to  be  as  much  in  need  of  punishment  as  ever 
(xxix. — xxxii.) ;  and,  though  on  Sargon's  death  all 
Palestine  revolted  from  Assyria  to  Egypt,  he  persisted 
that  this  would  not  save  her  from  Sennacherib  (xiv. 
29  ff. ;  xxix. — XXX.).  The  "  dourness  "  with  which  hi? 
countrymen  believed  in  Egypt  naturally  caused  the  pro- 
phet to  fill  his  orations  at  this  time  with  the  political  side 
of  his  conviction  that  Assyria  was  stronger  than  Egypt ; 
but  because  Jerusalem's  Egyptian  policy  springs  from  a 
deceitful  temper  (xxx.  I,  9,  10)  he  is  as  earnest  as  ever 
with  his  moral  conviction  that  judgement  is  coming. 
After  705  his  pictures  of  a  siege  of  Jerusalem  grow 
more  definite  (xxix. ;  xxx.).  He  seems  scorched  by  the 
nearness  of  the  Assyrian  conflagration  (xxx.  27  ff.). 
At  last  in  701,  when  Sennacherib  comes  to  Palestine, 
the  siege  is  pictured  as  immediate — chaps,  i,  and  xx., 
which  also  show  at  its  height  the  prophet's  moral  con- 
voL.  I.  24 


370  ^  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

viction  of  the  necessity  of  the  siege  for  punishing  his 
people. 

3.  But  over  against  this  moral  conviction,  that  Judah 
must  be  devastated  for  her  sin,  and  this  political,  that 
Assyria  is  to  be  the  instrument,  even  to  the  extreme  of 
a  siege  of  Jerusalem,  the  prophet  still  holds  strongly  to 
the  religious  assurance  that  God  cannot  allow  His 
shrine  to  be  violated  or  His  people  to  be  exterminated. 
At  first  it  is  only  of  the  people  that  Isaiah  speaks — the 
remnant  (vi. ;  viii.  18).  Jerusalem  is  not  mentioned  in 
the  verses  that  describe  the  overflowing  of  all  Judah 
by  Assyria  (viii.  7).  It  is  only  when  at  last,  in  721, 
the  prophet  realizes  how  near  a  siege  of  Jerusalem  may 
be  (x.  II,  28 — 32),  that  he  also  pictures  the  sudden 
destruction  of  the  Assyrian  on  his  arrival  within  sight 
of  her  walls  (x.  33).  In  705,  when  the  siege,  of  the 
sacred  city  once  more  becomes  imminent,  the  prophet 
again  reiterates  to  the  heathen  that  Zion  alone  shall 
stand  among  the  cities  of  Syria  (xiv.  32).  To  herself 
he  says  that,  though  she  shall  be  besieged  and  brought 
very  low,  she  shall  finally  be  delivered  (xxix.  i — 8 ; 
XXX.  19 — 26;  xxxi.  I,  4,  5).  It  is  true,  this  conviction 
seems  to  be  broken — once  by  a  prophecy  of  uncertain 
date  (xxxii.  14),  which  indicates  a  desolation  of  the 
buildings  of  Jerusalem,  and  once  by  the  prophet's  sen- 
tence of  death  upon  the  inhabitants  in  the  hour  of  their 
profligacy  (xxii.) — but  when  the  city  has  repented,  and 
the  enemy  have  perfidiously  come  back  to  demand  her 
surrender,  Isaiah  again  asseverates,  though  all  are  hope- 
less, that  she  shall  not  fall  (xxxvii.). 

4.  Now,  with  regard  to  the  method  of  Jerusalem's 
deliverance,  Isaiah  has  uniformly  described  this  as  hap- 
pening not  by  human  battle.  From  the  beginning  he 
said  that  Israel  should  be  delivered  in  the  last  extremity 


ISAIAH'S  PREDICTIONS.  371 

of  their  weakness  (vi.  13).  On  the  Assyrian's  arrival 
over  against  the  city,  Jehovah  is  to  lop  him  off  (x.  33). 
When  her  enemies  have  invested  Jerusalem,  Jehovah 
is  to  come  down  in  thunder  and  a  hurricane  and  sweep 
them  away  (after  705,  xxix,  5 — 8).  They  are  to  be 
suddenly  disappointed,  like  a  hungry  man  waking  from 
a  dream  of  food.  A  beautiful  promise  is  given  of  the 
raising  of  the  siege  without  mention  of  struggle  or 
any  weapon  (xxx.  20 — 26).  The  Assyrian  is  to  be 
checked  as  a  wild  bull  is  checked  witli  a  lasso,  is  to  be 
slain  by  the  lighting  down  oj  tlie  Lord's  arm,  by  the  voice 
of  the  Lord,  through  a  judgement  that  shall  be  liker 
a  solemn  holocaust  to  God  than  a  human  battle 
(xxx.  30 — 2,T)).  When  the  Assyrian  comes  back,  and 
Hezekiah  is  crushed  by  the  new  demand  for  surrender, 
Isaiah  says  that,  by  a  Divinely  inspired  impulse,  Senna- 
cherib, hearing  bad  news,  shall  suddenly  return  to  his 
own  land  (xxxviii.  7). 

It  is  only  in  very  little  details  that  these  predictions 
differ.  The  thunderstorm  and  torrents  of  fire  are,  of 
course,  but  poetic  variations.  In  721,  however,  the 
prophet  hardly  anticipates  the  very  close  siege,  which 
he  pictures  after  705  ;  and  while  from  705  to  702  he 
identifies  the  relief  of  Jerusalem  with  a  great  calamity 
to  the  Assyrian  army  about  to  invade  Judah,  yet  in  701, 
when  the  Assyrians  are  actually  on  the  spot,  he  suggests 
that  nothing  but  a  rumour  shall  cause  their  retreat  and 
so  leave  Jerusalem  free  of  them. 

5.  In  all  this  we  see  a  certain  fixity  and  a  certain 
FREEDOM.  The  freedom,  the  changes  and  inconsist- 
encies in  the  prediction,  are  entirely  limited  to  those 
of  Isaiah's  convictions  which  we  have  called  political, 
and  which  the  prophet  evidently  gathered  from  his 
observationof  political  circumstances  as  these  developed 


372  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

before  his  eyes  from  year  to  year.  But  what  was  fixed 
and  unalterable  to  Isaiah,  he  drew  from  the  moral  and 
religious  convictions  to  which  his  political  observation 
was  subservient ;  viz.,  Judah's  very  sore  punishment 
for  sin,  the  survival  of  a  people  of  God  in  the  world, 
and  their  deliverance  by  His  own  act. 

6.  This  "Bible-reading"  in  Isaiah's  predictive  pro- 
phecies reveals  very  clearly  the  nature  of  inspiration 
under  the  old  covenant.  To  Isaiah  inspiration  was 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  possession  of  certain 
strong  moral  and  religious  convictions,  which  he  felt  he 
owed  to  the  communication  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and 
according  to  which  he  interpreted,  and  even  dared  to 
foretell,  the  history  of  his  people  and  the  world.  Our 
study  completely  dispels,  on  the  evidence  of  the  Bible 
itself,  that  view  of  inspiration  and  prediction,  so  long 
held  in  the  Church,  which  it  is  difficult  to  define,  but 
which  means  something  like  this :  that  the  prophet 
bchtld  a  vision  of  the  future  in  its  actual  detail  and 
read  this  off  as  a  man  may  read  the  history  of  the 
past  out  of  a  book  or  a  clear  memory.  'I'his  is  a  very 
simple  view,  but  too  simple  either  to  meet  the  facts 
of  the  Bible,  or  to  afibrd  to  men  any  of  that  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual  satisfaction  which  the  discovery 
of  the  Divine  methods  is  sure  to  afford.  The  literal 
view  of  inspiration  is  too  simple  to  be  true,  and  too 
simple  to  be  edif3'ing.  On  the  other  hand,  how 
profitable,  how  edifying,  is  the  Bible's  own  account 
of  its  inspiration  !  To  know  that  men  interpreted, 
predicted  and  controlled  history  in  the  power  of  the 
purest  moral  and  religious  convictions — in  the  knowledge 
of,  and  the  loyalty  to,  certain  fundamental  laws  of  God 
— is  to  receive  an  account  of  inspiration,  which  is  not 
only  as  satisfying  to  the  reason  as  it  is  true  to  the  facts 


ISAIAH'S  PREDICTIONS.  373 

of  the  Bible,  but  is  spiritually  very  helpful  by  the  lofty 
example  and  reward  it  sets  before  our  own  faith.  By 
feith  differing  in  degree,  but  not  in  kind,  from  ours, 
faith  which  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for,  these  men 
became  prophets  of  God,  and  received  the  testimony  of 
history  that  they  spoke  from  Him.  Isaiah  prophesied 
and  predicted  all  he  did  from  loyalty  to  two  simple 
truths,  which  he  tells  us  he  received  from  God  Him- 
self: that  sin  must  be  punished,  and  that  the  people  of 
God  must  be  saved.  This  simple  faith,  acting  along  with 
a  wonderful  knowledge  of  human  nature  and  ceaseless 
vigilance  of  affairs,  constituted  inspiration  for  Isaiah. 

There  is  thus,  with  great  modifications,  an  analogy 
between  the  prophet  and  the  scientific  observer  of  the 
present  day.  Men  of  science  are  able  to  affirm  the 
certainty  of  natural  phenomena  by  their  knowledge  of 
the  laws  and  principles  of  nature.  Certain  forces  being 
present,  certain  results  must  come  to  pass.  The 
Old  Testament  prophets,  working  in  history,  a  sphere 
where  the  problems  were  infinitely  more  complicated  by 
the  presence  and  powerful  operation  of  man's  free-will, 
seized  hold  of  principles  as  conspicuous  and  certain 
to  them  as  the  laws  of  nature  are  to  the  scientist ;  and 
out  of  their  conviction  of  these  they  proclaimed  the 
necessity  of  certain  events.  God  is  inflexibly  righteous, 
He  cannot  utterly  destroy  His  people  or  the  witness  of 
Himself  among  men  :  these  were  the  laws.  Judah  shall 
be  punished,  Israel  shall  continue  to  exist :  these  were 
the  certainties  deduced  from  the  laws.  But  for  the  exact 
conditions  and  forms  both  of  the  punishment  and  its 
relief  the  prophets  depended  upon  their  knowledge  of 
the  world,  of  which,  as  these  pages  testify,  they  were  the 
keenest  and  largest-hearted  observers  that  ever  appeared. 

This  account  of  prophecy  may  be  offered  with  advan- 


374  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

tage  to  those  who  are  prejudiced  against  prophecy 
as  full  of  materials,  which  are  inexplicable  to  minds 
accustomed  to  find  a  law  and  reason  for  everything. 
Grant  the  truths  of  the  spiritual  doctrines,  which  the 
prophets  made  their  premises,  and  you  must  admit  that 
their  predictions  are  neither  arbitrary  nor  bewildering. 
Or  begin  at  the  other  end  :  verify  that  these  facts  took 
place,  and  that  the  prophets  actually  predicted  them  ; 
and  if  you  are  true  to  your  own  scientific  methods,  you 
will  not  be  able  to  resist  the  conclusion  that  the  spiritual 
laws  and  principles,  by  which  the  predictions  were  made, 
are  as  real  as  those  by  which  in  the  realm  of  nature  you 
proclaiiB  the  necessity  of  certain  physical  phenomena — 
and  all  this  in  spite  of  there  being  at  work  in  the  pro- 
phets' sphere  a  force,  the  free-will  of  man,  which  cannot 
interfere  with  the  laws  you  work  by,  as  it  can  with  those 
on  which  they  depend. 

But,  to  turn  from  the  apologetic  value  of  this  account 
of  prophecy  to  the  experimental,  we  maintain  that  it 
brings  out  a  new  sacredness  upon  common  life.  If  it 
be  true  that  Isaiah  had  no  magical  means  for  foretelling 
the  future,  but  simply  his  own  spiritual  convictions 
and  his  observation  of  history,  that  may,  of  course, 
deprive  some  eyes  of  a  light  which  they  fancied  they 
saw  bursting  from  heaven.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
does  it  not  cast  a  greater  glory  upon  daily  life  and 
history,  to  have  seen  in  Isaiah  this  close  connection 
between  spiritual  conviction  and  political  event  ?  Does 
it  not  teach  us  that  life  is  governed  by  faith  ;  that  the 
truths  we  profess  are  the  things  that  make  history ; 
that  we  carry  the  future  in  our  hearts  ;  that  not  an 
event  happens  but  is  to  be  used  by  us  as  meaning  the 
effect  of  some  law  of  God,  and  not  a  fact  appears  but 
is  the  symbol  and  sacrament  of  His  truth  ? 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

AN  OLD    TESTAMENT  BELIEVER'S  SICK-BED;  OR,  THE 
DIFFERENCE  CHRIST  HAS  MADE. 

Isaiah  xxxviii. ;  xxxix.  (date  uncertain). 

TO  the  great  national  drama  of  Jerusalem's  deliver- 
ance, there  have  been  added  two  scenes  of  a 
personal  kind,  relating  to  her  king.  Chaps,  xxxviii. 
and  xxxix.  are  the  narrative  of  the  sore  sickness 
and  recovery  of  King  Hezekiah,  and  of  the  embassy 
which  Merodach-baladan  sent  him,  and  how  he  received 
the  embassy.  The  date  of  these  events  is  difficult 
to  determine.  If,  with  Canon  Cheyne,  we  believe  in 
an  invasion  of  Judah  by  Sargon  in  71 1,  we  shall 
be  tempted  to  refer  them,  as  he  docs,  to  that  date — 
the  more  so  that  the  promise  of  fifteen  additional 
years  made  to  Hezekiah  in  71 1,  the  fifteenth  year  of 
his  reign,  would  bring  it  up  to  the  twenty-nine,  at 
which  it  is  set  in  2  Kings  xviii.  2.  That,  however,  would 
flatly  contradict  the  statement  both  of  Isaiah  xxxviii.  I 
and  2  Kings  xx.  i  that  Hezekiah's  sickness  fell  in  the 
days  of  the  invasion  of  Judah  by  Sennacherib ;  that 
is,  after  705.  But  to  place  the  promise  of  fifteen 
additional  years  to  Hezekiah  after  705,  when  we  know 
he  had  been  reigning  for  at  least  twenty  years,  would 
be  to  contradict  the  verse,  just  cited,  which  sums  up 
♦.he  years  of  his  reign  as  twenty-nine.     This  is,  in  fact, 


376  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

one  of  the  instances,  in  which  we  must  admit  our 
present  inabihty  to  ekicidate  the  chronology  of  this 
portion  of  the  book  of  Isaiah.  Mr.  Cheyne  thinks  the 
editor  mistook  the  siege  by  Sennacherib  for  the  siege 
by  Sargon.  But  as  the  fact  of  a  siege  by  Sargon  has 
never  been  satisfactorily  established,  it  seems  safer  to 
trust  the  statement  that  Hezekiah's  sickness  occurred 
in  the  reign  of  Sennacherib,  and  to  allow  that  there  has 
been  an  error  somewhere  in  the  numbering  of  the  years. 
It  is  remarkable  that  the  name  of  Merodach-baladan 
does  not  help  us  to  decide  between  the  two  dates.  There 
was  a  Merodach-baladan  in  rebellion  against  Sargon  in 
710,  and  there  was  one  in  rebellion  against  Sennacherib 
in  705.  It  has  not  yet  been  put  past  doubt  as  to 
whether  these  two  are  the  same.  The  essential  is  that 
there  was  a  Merodach-baladan  alive,  real  or  only 
claimant  king  of  Babylon,  about  705,  and  that  he  was 
likely  at  that  date  to  treat  with  Plezekiah,  being  himself 
in  revolt  against  Assyria.  Unable  to  come  to  any 
decision  about  the  conflicting  numbers,  we  leave 
uncertain  the  date  of  the  events  recounted  in 
chaps,  xxxviii.,  xxxix.  The  original  form  of  the 
narrative,  but  wanting  Hezekiah's  hymn,  is  given  in 
2  Kings  XX.* 

We  have  given  to  this  chapter  the  title  "An  Old 
Testament  Believer's  Deathbed ;  or.  The  Difference 
Christ  has  made,"  not  because  this  is  the  only  spiritual 
suggestion  of  the  story,  but  because  it  seems  to  the 
present  expositor  as  if  this  were  the  predominant  feeling 


*  Isa.  xxxviii.,  xxxix.,  has  evidently  been  abridged  from  2  Kings  xx., 
and  in  some  points  has  to  be  corrected  by  the  latter.  Chap,  xxxviii 
21,  22,  of  course,  must  be  brought  forward  before  ver.  7. 


xxxviii.;  xxxix.]     AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  SICK-BED.  377 

left  in  Christian  minds  after  reading  for  us  the  story. 
In  Hezekiah's  conduct  there  is  much  of  courage  for  us 
to  admire,  as  there  are  other  elements  to  warn  us  ;  but 
when  we  have  read  the  whole  story,  we  find  ourselves 
saying,  What  a  difference  Christ  has  made  to  me ! 
Take  Hezekiah  from  two  points  of  view,  and  then  let 
the  narrative  itstlf  bring  out  this  difference. 

Here  is  a  man,  who,  although  he  lived  more  than 
twenty-five  centuries  ago,  is  brought  quite  close  to  our 
side.  Death,  who  herds  all  men  into  his  narrow  fold, 
has  crushed  this  Hebrew  king  so  close  to  us  that  we 
can  feel  his  very  heart  beat.  Hezekiah's  hymn  gives 
us  entrance  into  the  feMowship  of  his  sufferings.  By 
the  figures  he  so  skilfully  uses  he  makes  us  feel  that 
pain,  the  shortness  of  life,  the  suddenness  of  death 
and  the  utter  blackness  beyond  were  to  him  just  what 
they  are  to  us.  And  yet  this  kinship  in  pain,  and 
fear  and  ignorance  only  makes  us  the  more  aware  of 
something  else  which  we  have  and  he  has  not. 

Again,  here  is  a  man  to  whom  religion  gave  all  it 
could  give  without  the  help  of  Christ ;  a  believer  in 
the  religion  out  of  which  Christianity  sprang,  perhaps 
the  most  representative  Old  Testament  believer  we  could 
find,  for  Hezekiah  was  at  once  the  collector  of  yvhat  was 
best  in  its  literature  and  the  reformer  of  what  was 
worst  in  its  worship ;  a  man  permeated  by  the  past 
piety  of  his  Church,  and  enjoying  as  his  guide  and 
philosopher  the  boldest  prophet  who  ever  preached  the 
future  developments  of  its  spirit.  Yet  when  we  put 
Hezekiah  and  all  that  Isaiah  can  give  him  on  one  side, 
we  shall  again  feel  for  ourselves  on  the  other  what  a 
difference  Christ  has  made. 

This  difference  a  simple  study  of  the  narrative  will 
make  clear. 


378  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


I. 

In  those  days  Hczekiah  became  sick  unto  death.  They 
were  critical  days  for  Judah — no  son  born  to  the  king 
(2  Kings  xxi.  i),  the  work  of  reformation  in  Judah  not 
yet  consohdated,  the  big  world  tossing  in  revolution  all 
around.  Under  God,  everything  depended  on  an  ex- 
perienced ruler ;  and  this  one,  without  a  son  to  succeed 
him,  was  drawing  near  to  death.  We  will  therefore 
judge  Hezekiah's  strong  passion  for  life  to  have  been 
patriotic  as  well  as  selfish.  He  stood  in  the  midtime  of 
his  days,  with  a  faithfully  executed  work  behind  him 
and  so  good  an  example  of  kinghood  that  for  years 
Isaiah  had  not  expressed  his  old  longing  for  the 
Messiah.  The  Lord  had  counted  Hezekiah  righteous  ; 
that  twin-sign  had  been  given  him  which  more  than  any 
other  assured  an  Israelite  of  Jehovah's  favour — a  good 
conscience  and  success  in  his  work.  Well,  therefore, 
might  he  cry  when  Isaiah  brought  him  the  sentence  of 
death,  Ah,  now,  Jehovah,  remember,  I  beseech  Thee,  Jioiv  I 
have  ivalked  before  Thee  in  truth  and  with  a  perfect  heart, 
and  have  done  that  ivhich  is  good  in  Thine  eyes.  And 
Hczekiah  zvcpt  with  a  great  ivceping. 

There  is  difficulty  in  the  3trange  story  which  follows. 
The  dial  was  probably  a  pyramid  of  steps  on  the  top  of 
which  stood  a  short  pillar  or  obelisk.  When  the  sun 
rose  in  the  morning,  the  shadow  cast  by  the  pillar  would 
fall  right  down  tlie  western  side  of  the  pyramid  to  the 
bottom  of  the  lowest  step.  As  the  sun  ascended  the 
shadow  would  shorten,  and  creep  up  inch  by  inch  to  the 
foot  of  the  pillar.  After  noon,  as  the  sun  began  to 
descend  to  the  west,  the  shadow  would  creep  down 
the  eastern  steps ;  and  the  steps  were  so  measured  that 


xxxviii.;  xxxix.]     AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  SICK-BED.  379 


each  one  marked  a  certain  degree  of  time.  It  was 
probably  afternoon  when  Isaiah  visited  the  icing.  The 
shadow  was  go!n<^  down  according  to  the  regular  law ; 
the  sign  consisted  in  causing  the  shadow  to  shrink  up 
the  steps  again.  Such  a  reversal  of  the  ordinary  pro- 
gress of  the  shadow  may  have  been  caused  in  either  of 
two  ways :  by  the  whole  earth  being  thrown  back  on  its 
axis,  which  we  may  dismiss  as  impossible,  or  by  the 
occurrence  of  the  phenomenon  known  as  refraction. 
Refraction  is  a  disturbance  in  the  atmosphere  by  which 
the  rays  of  the  sun  are  bent  or  deflected  from  their 
natural  course  into  an  angular  one.  In  this  case, 
instead  of  shooting  straight  over  the  top  of  the 
obelisk,  the  rays  of  the  sun  had  been  bent  down 
and  inward,  so  that  the  shadow  fled  up  to  the  foot  of 
the  obelisk.  There  are  many  things  in  the  air  which 
might  cause  this  ;  it  is  a  phenomenon  often  observed; 
and  the  Scriptural  narratives  imply  that  on  this  occasion 
it  was  purely  local  (2  Chron,  xxxii.  31),  Had  we  only 
the  narrative  in  the  book  of  Isaiah,  the  explanation 
would  have  been  easy.  Isaiah,  having  given  the  sentence 
of  death,  passed  the  dial  in  the  palace  courtyard,  and 
saw  the  shadow  lying  ten  degrees  farther  up  than  it 
should  have  done,  the  sight  of  which  coincided  with 
the  inspiration  that  the  king  would  not  die ;  and  Isaiah 
went  back  to  announce  to  Hezekiah  his  reprieve,  and 
naturally  call  his  attention  to  this  as  a  sign,  to  which  a 
weak  and  desponding  man  would  be  glad  to  cling.  But 
the  original  narrative  in  the  book  of  Kings  tells  us 
that  Isaiah  offered  Hezekiah  a  choice  of  signs  :  that 
the  shadow  should  either  advance  or  retreat,  and  that 
the  king  chose  the  latter.  The  sign  came  in  answer  to 
Isaiah's  prayer,  and  is  narrated  to  us  as  a  special  Divine 
interposition.      But    a    medicine    accompanied    it,   and 


38o  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

Hezekiah  recovered  through  a  poultice  of  figs  laid  on 
the  boil  from  which  he  suffered. 

While  recognising  for  our  own  faith  the  uselessness 
of  a  discussion  on  this  sign  offered  to  a  sick  man,  let 
us  not  miss  the  moral  lessons  of  so  touching  a  narrative, 
nor  the  sympathy  with  the  sick  king  which  it  is  fitted  to 
produce,  and  which  is  our  best  introduction  to  the  study 
of  his  hymn. 

Isaiah  had  performed  that  most  awful  duty  of  doctor 
or  minister  the  telling  of  a  friend  that  he  must  die. 
Few  men  have  not  in  their  personal  experience  a  key 
to  the  prophet's  feelings  on  this  occasion.  The  leaving 
of  a  dear  friend  for  the  last  time ;  the  coming  out  into 
the  sunlight  which  he  will  nevermore  share  with  us ; 
the  passing  by  the  dial ;  the  observation  of  the  creeping 
shadow ;  the  feeling  that  it  is  only  a  question  of  time  ; 
the  passion  of  prayer  into  which  that  feeling  throws  us 
that  God  may  be  pleased  to  put  off  the  hour  and  spare 
our  friend  ;  the  invention,  that  is  born,  like  prayer,  of 
necessity  :  a  cure  we  suddenly  remember;  the  confidence 
which  prayer  and  invention  bring  between  them  ;  the 
return  with  the  joyful  news ;  the  giving  of  the  order 
about  the  remedy — cannot  many  in  their  degree  rejoice 
with  Isaiah  in  such  an  experience  ?  But  he  has,  too,  a 
conscience  of  God  and  God's  work  to  which  none  of  us 
may  pretend  :  he  knows  how  indispensable  to  that  work 
his  royal  pupil  is,  and  out  of  this  inspiration  he  pro- 
phesies the  will  of  the  Lord  that  Hezekiah  shall  recover. 

Then  the  king,  with  a  sick  man's  sacramental  longing, 
asks  a  sign.  Out  through  the  window  the  courtyard  is 
visible;  there  stands  the  sam.e  step-dial  of  Ahaz,  the 
long  pillar  on  the  top  of  the  steps,  the  shadow  creeping 
down  them  through  the  warm  afternoon  sunshine. 
To    the    sick  man    it  must  have  been  like   the  finger 


xxxviii.;  xxxix.]     yiN  OLD  TESTA Mi:.\T  SICK-nED.  3S1 

of  death  coming  nearer.  Shall  the  shadow,  asks 
the  prophet,  go  forward  ten  steps  or  go  back  ten 
slips  ?  It  is  easy,  says  the  king,  alarmed,  for  the 
shadow  to  go  down  ten  steps.  Easy  for  it  to  go 
down!  Has  he  not  been  feeUng  that  all  the  afternoon? 
"  Do  not,"  we  can  fancy  him  saying,  with  the  gasp  of  a 
man  who  has  been  watching  its  irresistible  descent — 
"do  not  let  that  black  thing  come  farther;  but  let  the 
shadow  go  backward  ten  steps" 

The  shadow  returned,  and  Hezekiah  got  his  sign. 
But  when  he  was  well,  he  used  it  for  more  than  a  sign. 
He  read  a  great  spiritual  lesson  in  it.  The  time,  which 
upon  the  dial  had  been  apparently  thrown  back,  had  in 
his  life  been  really  thrown  back  ;  and  God  had  given 
him  his  years  to  live  over  again.  The  past  was  to  be  as 
if  it  had  never  been,  its  guilt  and  weakness  wiped  out. 
Thou  hast  cast  behind  Thy  back  all  my  sins.  As  a  new- 
born child  Hezekiah  felt  himself  uncommitted  by  the 
past,  not  a  sin's-doubt  nor  a  sin's-co  ward  ice  in  him, 
with  the  heart  of  a  little  child,  but  yet  with  the 
strength  and  dignity  of  a  grown  man,  for  it  is  the 
magic  of  tribulation  to  bring  innocence  with  experience. 
/  shall  go  softly,  or  literally,  with  dignity  or  caution,  as 
in  a  procession,  all  my  years  because  of  the  bitterness  of 
my  soul.  O  Lord,  upon  such  things  do  men  live;  and 
altogether  in  them  is  the  life  of  my  spirit.  .  .  .  Behold, 
for  perfection  was  it  bitter  to  me,  so  bitter.  And  through 
it  all  there  breaks  a  new  impression  of  God.  What 
shall  I  say  ?  He  hath  both  spoken  ivith  me,  and  Himself 
hath  done  it.  As  if  afraid  to  impute  his  profits  to  the 
mere  experience  itself.  In  them  is  the  life  of  my  spirit, 
he  breaks  in  with  Yea,  Thou  hast  recovered  me;  yea, 
Thou  hast  made  me  to  live.  And  then,  by  a  very 
pregnant   construction,  he    adds,   Thou   hast  loved  my 


382  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

soul  out  of  the  pit  of  destruction ;  that  is,  of  course, 
loved,  and  by  Thy  love  lifted,  but  he  uses  the  one  word 
loved,  and  gives  it  the  active  force  of  drawing  or 
lifting.  In  this  lay  the  head  and  glory  of  Hezekiah's 
expeiience.  He  was  a  religious  man,  an  enthusiast 
for  the  Temple  services,  and  had  all  his  days  as 
his  friend  the  prophet  whose  heart  was  with  the 
heart  of  God  ;  but  it  was  not  through  any  of  these 
means  God  came  near  him,  not  till  he  lay  sick  and  had 
turned  his  face  to  the  wall.  Then  indeed  he  cried. 
What  shall  I  say  ?  He  hath  both  spoken  with  me,  and 
Himself  hath  done  it ! 

Forgiveness,  a  new  peace,  a  new  dignity  and  a  visit 
from  the  living  God  !  Well  might  Ilezekiah  exclaim  that 
it  was  only  through  a  near  sense  of  death  that  men 
rightly  learned  to  live.  Ah,  Lord,  it  is  upon  these  things 
that  men  live ;  and  wholly  therein  is  the  life  of  my  spirit. 
It  is  by  these  things  men  live,  and  therein  I  have 
learned  for  the  first  time  what  hfe  is ! 

In  all  this  at  least  we  cannot  go  beyond  Hezckiah, 
and  he  stands  an  example  to  the  best  Christian  among 
us.  Never  did  a  man  bring  richer  harvest  from  the 
fields  of  death.  Everything  that  renders  life  really  life 
—  peace,  dignity,  a  new  sense  of  God  and  of  His  for- 
giveness— these  were  the  spoils  which  Hezekiah  won  in 
his  struggle  with  the  grim  enemy.  He  had  snatched 
from  death  a  new  meaning  for  life  ;  he  had  robbed 
death  of  its  awful  pomp,  and  bestowed  this  on  careless 
life.  Hereafter  he  should  walk  with  the  step  and  the 
mien  of  a  conqueror — /  shall  go  in  solemn  procession 
all  my  years  because  of  the  bitterness  of  my  soul — or  with 
the  carefulness  of  a  worshipper,  who  sees  at  the  end  of 
his  course  the  throne  of  the  Most  High  God,  and  makes 
all  his  life  an  ascent  thither. 


xxxviii. ;  xxxix.]     AN  OLD  TESTAMENT  SICK-BED.  3S3 

This  is  the  effect  which  every  great  sorrow  and  strug- 
gle has  upon  a  noble  soul.  Come  to  the  streets  of  the 
living.  Who  are  these,  whom  we  can  so  easily  distin- 
guish Irom  the  crowd  by  their  firmness  of  step  and  look 
o'  peace,  walking  softly  where  some  spurt  and  some 
halt,  holding,  without  rest  or  haste,  the  tenor  of  their 
way,  as  if  they  marched  to  music  heard  by  their  ears 
alone  ?  These  are  they  which  have  come  out  of  great 
tribulation.  They  have  brought  back  into  time  the 
sense  of  eternity.  They  know  how  near  the  invisible 
worlds  lie  to  this  one,  and  the  sense  of  the  vart  silences 
stills  all  idle  laughter  in  their  hearts.  The  life  that  is 
to  other  men  chance  or  sport,  strife  or  hurried  flight,  has 
for  them  its  allotted  distance  ;  is  for  them  a  measured 
march,  a  constant  worship.  For  the  bitterness  of  their 
soul  they  go  in  procession  all  their  years.  Sorrow's 
subjects,  they  are  our  kings  ;  wrestlers  with  death,  our 
veterans  :  and  to  the  rabble  armies  of  society  they  set 
the  step  of  a  nobler  life. 

Count  especially  the  young  man  blessed,  who  has 
looked  into  the  grave  before  he  has  faced  the  great 
temptations  of  the  world,  and  has  not  entered  the  raceo 
life  till  he  has  learned  his  stride  in  the  race  with  death. 
They  tell  us  that  on  the  outside  of  civilisation,  where  men 
carry  their  lives  in  their  hands,  a  most  thorough  polite- 
ness and  dignity  are  bred,  in  spite  of  the  want  of  settled 
habits,  by  the  sense  of  danger  alone  ;  and  we  know  how 
battle  and  a  deadly  climate,  pestilence  or  the  perils  o 
the  sea  have  sent  back  to  us  the  most  careless  of  our 
youth  with  a  self-possession  and  regularity  of  mind, 
that  it  would  have  been  hopeless  to  expect  them  to 
develop  amid  the  trivial  trials  of  village  life. 

But  the  greatest  duty  of  us  men  is  not  to  seek  nor  to 
pray  for  such  combats  with  death.     It  is  when  God  has 


384  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

found  these  for  us  to  remain  true  to  our  memories  of 
them.  The  hardest  duty  of  life  is  to  remain  true  to  our 
psalms  of  deliverance,  as  it  is  certainly  life's  greatest 
temptation  to  fall  away  from  the  sanctity  of  sorrow, 
and  suffer  the  stately  style  of  one  who  knows  how 
near  death  hovers  to  his  line  of  march  to  degenerate 
into  the  broken  step  of  a  wanton  life.  This  was 
Hezekiah's  temptation,  and  this  is  why  the  story  of 
his  fall  in  the  thirty-ninth  chapter  is  placed  beside  his 
vows  in  the  thirty-eighth — to  warn  us  how  easy  it  is 
for  those  who  have  come  conquerors  out  of  a  struggle 
with  death  to  fall  a  prey  to  common  life.  He  had  said, 
/  ivill  zvalk  softly  all  my  years  ;  but  how  arrogantly  and 
rashly  he  carried  himself  when  Merodach-baladan  sent 
the  embassy  to  congratulate  him  on  his  recovery.  It 
was  not  with  the  dignity  of  the  veteran,  but  with  a 
childish  love  of  display,  perhaps  also  with  the  too  rest- 
less desire  to  secure  an  alliance,  that  he  showed  the 
envoys  his  slorehonse,  the  silver,  and  the  gold,  and  the 
spices,  and  the  precious  oil,  and  all  the  house  of  his  armour 
and  all  that  was  found  in  his  treasures.  There  was 
nothing  which  Hczekiah  did  not  show  them  in  his  house 
nor  in  all  his  dominion.  In  this  behaviour  there  was 
neither  caution  nor  sobriety,  and  we  cannot  doubt  but 
that  Hezekiah  felt  the  shame  of  it  when  Isaiah  sternly 
rebuked  him  and  threw  upon  all  his  house  the  dark 
shadow  of  captivity. 

It  is  easier  to  win  spoils  from  death  than  to  keep 
them  untarnished  by  life.  Shame  burns  warm  in  a 
soldier's  heart  when  he  sees  the  arms  he  risked  life  to 
win  rusting  for  want  of  a  little  care.  Ours  will  not  burn 
less  if  we  discover  that  the  strength  of  character  we 
brought  with  us  out  of  some  great  tribulation  has  been 
slowly    weakened    by    subsequent    self-indulgence   or 


xxxviii.;  xxxix.]    AN  OLD   TESTAMENT  SICK-BED.  385 

vanity.  How  awful  to  have  fouglit  for  character  with 
death  only  to  squander  it  upon  life  !  It  is  well  to  keep 
praying,  "  My  God,  suffer  me  not  to  forget  my  bonds 
and  my  bitterness.  In  my  hours  of  wealth  and  ease, 
and  health  and  peace,  by  the  memory  of  Thy  judge- 
ments deliver  me,  good  Lord." 

IL 

So  far  then  Hezekiah  is  an  example  and  warning  to 
us  all.  With  all  our  faith  in  Christ,  none  of  us,  in  the 
things  mentioned,  may  hope  to  excel  this  Old  Testament 
believer.  But  notice  very  particularly  that  Hezekiah's 
faith  and  fortitude  are  profitable  only  for  this  life.  It 
is  when  we  begin  to  think.  What  of  the  life  to  come? 
that  we  perceive  the  infinite  difference  Christ  has  made. 

We  know  what  Hezekiah  felt  when  his  back  was 
turned  on  death,  and  he  came  up  to  life  again.  But 
what  (lid  he  feel  when  he  faced  the  other  way,  and  his 
back  was  to  life  ?  With  his  back  to  life  and  facing  deatli- 
wards,  Hezekiah  saw  nothing,  that  was  worth  hoping 
for.  To  him  to  die  was  to  leave  God  behind  him, 
to  leave  the  face  of  God  as  surely  as  he  was  leaving 
the  face  of  man.  /  said,  I  shall  not  see  fah,  Jah  in 
the  land  of  the  living;  I  shall  gaze  upon  man  no  more 
with  the  inhabitants  of  the  world.  The  beyond  was 
not  to  Hezekiah  absolute  nothingness,  for  he  had  his 
conceptions,  the  popular  conceptions  of  his  time,  of  a 
sort  of  existence  that  was  passed  by  those  who  had 
been  men  upon  earth.  The  imagination  of  his  people 
figured  the  gloomy  portals  of  a  nether  world — Slieol, 
the  Hollow  (Dante's  "  hollow  realm  "),  or  perhaps  the 
Craving — into  which  death  herds  the  shades  of  men, 
bloodless,  voiceless,  without  love  or  hope  or  aught  that 

VOL.    I.  25 


386  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

makes  life  worth  living.  With  such  an  existence  be- 
yond, to  die  to  life  here  was  to  Hezekiah  like  as  when 
a  weaver  rolls  up  the  finished  web.  M3'  life  may  be  a 
pattern  for  others  to  copy,  a  banner  for  others  to  fight 
under,  but  for  me  it  is  finished.  Death  has  cut  it  from 
the  loom.  Or  it  was  like  going  into  captivity.  Mine 
age  is  removed  and  is  carried  away  from  me  into  exile,  like 
a  shepherd's  tent — exile  which  to  a  Jew  was  the  extreme 
of  despair,  impl3ang  as  it  did  absence  from  God,  and 
salvation  and  the  possibility  of  worship.  Sheol  cannot 
praise  Thee;  death  cannot  celebrate  Thee:  they  that  go 
doivn  into  the  pit  cannot  hope  for  Thy  faitif  illness. 

Of  this  then  at  the  best  Hezekiah  was  sure :  a 
respite  of  fifteen  years — nothing  beyond.  Then  the 
shadow  would  not  return  upon  the  dial ;  and  as  the 
king's  eyes  closed  upon  the  dear  faces  of  his  friends, 
his  sense  of  the  countenance  of  God  would  die  too, 
and  his  soul  slip  into  the  abyss,  hopeless  of  God's 
faithfulness. 

It  is  this  awful  anticlimax,  which  makes  us  feel  the 
difference  Christ  has  made.  This  saint  stood  in  almost 
the  clearest  light  that  revelation  cast  before  Jesus.  He 
was  able  to  perceive  in  suffering  a  meaning  and  derive 
from  it  a  strength  not  to  be  exceeded  by  any  Christian. 
Yet  his  faith  is  profitable  for  this  life  alone.  For  him 
character  may  wrestle  with  death  over  and  over  again, 
and  grow  the  stronger  for  every  grapple,  but  death 
wins  the  last  throw. 

It  may  be  said  that  Hezekiah's  despair  of  the  future 
IS  simply  the  morbid  thoughts  of  a  sick  man  or  the 
exaggerated  fancies  of  a  poet.  "  We  must  not,"  it  is 
urged,  "define  a  poet's  languag;e  with  the  strictness  of  a 
theology."  True,  and  we  must  alsn  make  some  allow- 
ance for  a  man  dying  prematurely  in  the  midst  of  his 


xxxviii  ;  xxxix.]     AN  OLD    TESTAMENT  SICK-BED.  387 

days.  But  if  this  hymn  is  only  poetry,  it  would  have 
been  as  easy  to  poetise  on  the  opposite  possibilities 
acros.s  the  grave.  So  quick  an  imagination  as  Hezekiah's 
could  not  have  failed  to  take  advantage  of  the  slightest 
scintilla  of  glory  that  pierced  the  cloud.  It  must  be 
that  his  eye  saw  none,  for  all  his  poetry  droops  the 
other  way.  We  seek  in  heaven  for  praise  in  its  fulness  ; 
there  we  know  God's  servants  shall  see  Him  face 
to  face.  But  of  this  Hezekiah  had  not  the  slightest 
imagination;  he  anxiously  prayed  that  he  might  recover 
to  sfrike  the  siiinged  instruments  all  the  days  of  his  life 
in  the  house  of  Jehovah.  The  living,  the  living,  lie 
praiscth  thee,  as  I  do  this  day;  the  father  to  the  children 
shall /nake  knoivn  Thy  truth.  But  they  that  go  down  into 
the  pit  canjiot  hope  for  Thy  faithfulness. 

Now  compare  all  this  with  the  Psalms  of  Christian 
hope  ;  with  the  faith  that  fills  Paul ;  with  his  ardour 
who  says,  To  me  to  depart  is  far  better;  with  the  glory 
which  John  beholds  with  open  face :  the  hosts  of  the 
redeemed  praising  God  and  walking  in  the  light  of 
His  face,  all  the  geography  of  that  country  laid  down, 
and  the  plan  of  the  new  Jerusalem  declared  to  the 
very  fashion  of  her  stones ;  with  the  audacity  since  of 
Christian  art  and  song  :  the  rapture  of  Watts'  hymns 
and  the  exhilaration  of  Wesley's  praise  as  they  contem- 
plate death  ;  and  with  the  joyful  and  exact  anticipations 
of  so  many  millions  of  common  men  as  they  turn  their 
faces  to  the  wall.  In  all  these,  in  even  the  Book  of  the 
Revelation,  there  is  of  course  a  great  deal  of  pure  fancy. 
But  imagination  never  bursts  in  anywhither  till  fact 
has  preceded.  And  it  is  just  because  there  is  a  great 
fact  standing  between  us  and  Hezekiah  that  the  pure- 
ness  of  our  faith  and  the  richness  of  our  imagination 
of  immortality  differ  so  much  from  his.     That   fact  is 


3SS  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

Jesus  Christ,  His  resurrection  and  ascension.  It  is 
He  who  has  made  all  the  difference  and  brought  life 
and  immortality  to  light. 

And  we  shall  know  the  difference  if  we  lose  our  faith 
in  tliat  fact.  For  except  Christ  be  risen  from  the  dead  and 
gone  before  to  a  country  which  derives  all  its  reality  and 
light  for  our  imagination  from  that  Presence,  which  once 
walked  with  us  in  the  flesh,  there  remains  for  us  only 
Hczekiah's  courage  to  make  the  best  of  a  short  reprieve, 
only  Hezckiah's  outlook  into  Hades  when  at  last  we 
turn  our  faces  to  the  v»all.  But  to  be  stronger  and 
purer  for  having  met  with  death,  as  he  was,  only 
that  we  must  afterwards  succumb,  with  our  purity 
ar,d  our  strength,  to  death — this  is  surely  to  be,  as  Paul 
said,  of  all  men  the  most  miserable. 

Better  far  to  own  the  power  of  an  endless  life,  which 
Christ  has  sealed  to  us,  and  translate  Hezckiah's 
experience  into  the  new  calculus  of  immortality.  If  to 
have  faced  death  as  he  did  was  to  inherit  dignity  and 
peace  and  sense  of  power,  what  glory  of  kingship  and 
queenship  must  sit  upon  those  faces  in  the  other  world 
who  have  been  at  closer  quarters  still  with  the  King  of 
errors,  and  through  Christ  their  strength  have  spoiled 
him  of  his  sting  and  victory  !  To  have  felt  the  worst 
of  death  and  to  have  triumphed — this  is  the  secret  of 
the  peaceful  hearts,  unfaltering  looks  and  faces  of  glory, 
which  pass  in  solemn  procession  of  worship  through  all 
eternity  before  the  throne  of  God. 


We  shall  consider  the  Old  Testament  views  of  a 
future  life  and  resurrection  more  fully  in  chaps,  xxvii. 
and  XXX.  of  this  volume. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

HAD  ISAIAH  A    GOSPEL  FOR    THE  INDIVIDUAL? 

THE  two  narratives,  in  which  Isaiah's  career  cul- 
minates— that  of  the  DeHverance'of  Jerusalem 
(xxxvi. ;  xxsvii.)  and  that  of  the  Recovery  of  Hezekiah 
(xxxviii. ;  xxxix.) — cannot  fail,  coming  together  as  they 
do,  to  suggest  to  thoughtful  readers  a  striking  contrast 
between  Isaiah's  treatment  of  the  community  and  his 
treatment  of  the  individual,  between  his  treatment  of 
the  Church  and  his  treatment  of  single  members.  For 
in  the  first  of  these  narratives  we  are  told  how  an 
illimitable  future,  elsewhere  so  gloriously  described  by 
the  prophet,  was  secured  for  the  Church  upon  earth ; 
but  the  whole  result  of  the  second  is  the  gain  for  a 
representative  member  of  the  Church  of  a  respite  of 
fifteen  years.  Nothing,  as  we  have  seen,  is  promised 
to  the  dying  Hezekiah  of  a  future  life ;  no  scintilla  of 
the  light  of  eternity  sparkles  either  in  Isaiah's  promise 
or  in  Hezekiah's  prayer.  The  net  result  of  the  incident 
is  a  repi  ieve  of  fifteen  years  :  fifteen  years  of  a  character 
strengthened,  indeed,  by  having  met  with  death,  but, 
it  would  sadly  seem,  only  in  order  to  become  again  the 
prey  of  the  vanities  of  this  world  (chap,  xxxix.).  So 
meagre  a  result  for  the  individual  stands  strangely  out 
against  the  perpetual  glory  and  peace  assured  to  the 
community.       And    it    suggests    this    question :     Had 


390  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

Isaiah  any  real  gospel  for  the  individual  ?     If  so,  what 
was  it  ? 

First  of  all,  we  must  remember  that  God  in  His 
providence  seldom  gives  to  one  prophet  or  generation 
more  than  a  single  main  problem  for  solution.  In 
Isaiah's  day  undoubtedly  the  most  urgent  problem — 
and  Divine  problems  are  ever  practical,  not  philo- 
sophical— was  the  continuance  of  the  Church  upon 
earth.  It  had  really  got  to  be  a  matter  of  doubt 
whether  a  body  of  people  possessing  the  knowledge 
of  the  true  God,  and  able  to  transfuse  and  transmit  it, 
could  possibly  survive  among  the  political  convulsions 
of  the  world,  and  in  consequence  of  its  own  sin. 
Isaiah's  problem  was  the  reformation  and  survival  of  the 
Church.  In  accordance  with  this,  we  notice  how  many 
of  his  terms  are  collective,  and  how  he  almost  never 
addresses  the  individual.  It  is  the  people,  upon  whom 
he  calls — tlie  nation,  Israel,  the  house  of  Jacob  My  vine- 
yard, the  men  of  Judah  His  pleasant  plantation.  To  these 
we  may  add  the  apostrophes  to  the  city  of  Jerusalem, 
under  many  personifications  :  Ariel,  Ariel,  inhabitress  of 
Zion,  daughter  of  Zion.  When  Isaiah  denounces  sin,  the 
sinner  is  either  the  whole  community  or  a  class  in  the 
community,  very  seldom  an  individual,  though  there  are 
some  instances  of  the  latter,  as  Ahaz  and  Shebna.  It  is 
This  people  hath  rejected,  or  The  people  woidd  not.  When 
Jerusalem  collapsed,  although  there  must  have  been 
many  righteous  men  still  within  her,  Isaiah  said.  What 
aileth  thee  that  all  belonging  to  thee  have  gone  up  to  the 
housetops?  (xxii.  i).  His  language  is  wholesale.  When 
he  is  not  attacking  society,  he  attacks  classes  or  groups: 
the  rulers,  the  land-grabbers,  the  drunkards,  the  sinners, 
the  judges,  the  house  of  David,  the  priests  and  the  prophets, 
the  women.     And  the  sins  of  these  he  describes  in  their 


HAD  ISAIAH  A  GOSPEL  FOR  THE  INDIVIDUAL?    391 

social  effects,  or  in  their  results  upon  the  fate  of  the 
whole  people ;  but  he  never,  except  in  two  cases,  gives 
us  their  individual  results.  He  does  not  make  evident, 
like  Jesus  or  Paul,  the  eternal  damage  a  man's  sin 
inflicts  on  his  own  soul. 

Similarly  when  Isaiah  speaks  of  God's  grace  and 
salvation  the  objects  of  these  are  again  collective — tlie 
remnant;  the  escaped  (also  a  collective  noun) ;  a  holy 
seed;  a  stock  or  stump.  It  is  a  restored  nation  whom  he 
sees  under  the  Messiah,  the  perpetuity  and  glory  of  a 
city  and  a  State.  What  we  consider  to  be  a  most  per- 
sonal and  particularly  individual  matter — the  forgive- 
ness of  sin— he  promises,  with  two  exceptions,  only 
to  the  community  :  This  people  that  dwelleth  therein  hath 
its  iniquity  Jorgiven.  We  can  understand  all  this  social, 
collective  and  wholesale  character  of  his  language 
only  if  we  keep  in  mind  his  Divinely  appointed  work 
— the  substance  and  perpetuity  of  a  purified  and  secure 
Church  of  God. 

Had  Isaiah  then  no  gospel  for  the  individual  ? 
This  will  indeed  seem  impossible  to  us  if  we  keep  in 
view  the  following  considerations  : — 

I.'  Isaiah  himself  had  passed  through  a  powerfully 
individual  experience.  He  had  not  only  felt  the  soli- 
darity of  the  people's  sin — /  dwell  among  a  people  of  un- 
clean lips — he  had  first  felt  his  own  particular  guilt :  / 
am  a  man  of  unclean  lips.  One  who  suffered  the  private 
experiences  which  are  recounted  in  chap,  vi.;  whose 
ozvn  eyes  had  seen  the  King,  fehovah  of  hosts ;  who  had 
gathered  on  his  own  lips  his  guilt  and  felt  the  fire  come 
from  heaven's  altar  by  an  angelic  messenger  specially  to 
purify  him;  who  had  further  devoted  himself  to  God's 
service  with  so  thrilling  a  sense  of  his  own  responsibility, 
and  had    so   thereby   felt   his   solitary    and   individual 


392  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

mission — he  surely  was  not  behind  the  very  greatest  of 
Christian  saints  in  the  experience  of  guilt,  of  personal 
obligation  to  grace  and  of  personal  responsibility. 
Though  the  record  of  Isaiah's  ministry  contains  no 
narratives,  such  as  fill  the  ministries  of  Jesus  and  Paul, 
of  anxious  care  for  individuals,  could  he  who  wrote  of 
himself  that  sixth  chapter  have  failed  to  deal  with  men 
as  Jesus  dealt  with  Nicodemus,  or  Paul  with  the  Philip- 
pian  ga  )lcr?  It  is  not  picturesque  fancy,  nor  merely  a 
reflection  of  the  New  Testament  temper,  if  we  realize 
Isaiah's  intervals  of  relief  from  political  labour  and  re- 
ligious reform  occupied  with  an  attention  to  individual 
interests,  which  necessarily  would  not  obtain  the  perma- 
nent record  of  his  public  ministry.  But  whether  this  be 
so  or  not,  the  sixth  chapter  teaches  that  for  Isaiah  all 
public  conscience  and  public  labour  found  its  necessary 
preparation  in  personal  religion. 

2.  But,  again,  Isaiah  had  an  Individual  for  his 
IDEAL.  To  him  the  future  was  not  only  an  established 
State;  it  was  equally,  it  was  first,  a  glorious  king. 
Isaiah  was  an  Oriental.  We  moderns  of  the  West 
place  our  reliance  upon  institutions  ;  we  go  forward  upon 
ideas.  In  the  East  it  is  personal  influence  that  tells, 
persons  who  are  expected,  followed  and  fought  for. 
The  history  of  the  West  is  the  history  of  the  advance 
of  thought,  of  the  rise  and  decay  of  institutions,  to 
which  the  greatest  individuals  are  more  or  less  sub- 
ordinate. The  history  of  the  East  is  the  annals  of 
personalities;  justice  and  energy  in  a  ruler,  not  poliiical 
principles,  are  what  impress  the  Oriental  imagination. 
Isaiah  has  carried  this  Oriental  hope  to  a  distinct  and 
lofty  pitch.  The  Hero  whom  he  exalts  on  the  maryin 
of  the  future,  as  its  Author,  is  not  only  a  person  of 
great   majesty,  but  a  character  of  considerable  decision. 


HAD  ISAIAH  A  GOSPEL  FOR  THE  INDIVIDUAL?    393 

At  first  only  the  rigorous  virtues  of  the  ruler  are  attri- 
buted to  Him  (chap.  xi.  i  fF.),  but  afterwards  the  graces 
and  influence  of  a  much  broader  and  sweeter  humanity 
(xxxii.  2).  Indeed,  in  this  latter  oracle  we  saw  that 
Isaiah  spoke  not  so  much  of  his  great  Hero,  as  of  what 
any  individual  might  become.  A  man,  he  says,  shall  be 
as  an  hiding-place  from  the  wind.  Personal  influence 
is  the  spring  of  social  progress,  the  shelter  and  fountain 
force  of  the  community.  In  the  following  verses  the 
effect  of  so  pure  and  inspiring  a  presence  is  traced 
in  the  discrimination  of  individual  character — each 
man  standing  out  for  what  he  is — which  Isaiah  defines 
as  his  second  requisite  for  social  progress.  In  all  this 
there  is  much  for  the  individual  to  ponder,  much  to 
inspire  him  with  a  sense  of  the  value  and  responsibility 
of  his  own  character,  and  with  the  certainty  that  by 
himself  he  shall  be  judged  and  by  himself  stand  or  fall. 
The  worthless  person  shall  be  no  more  called  princely,  nor 
the  knave  said  to  be  bountiful. 

3.  If  any  details  of  character  are  wanting  in  the 
picture  of  Isaiah's  Hero,  they  are  supplied  by  Hezekiah's 
Self-analysis  (chap,  xxxviii.).  We  need  not  repeat 
what  we  have  said  in  the  previous  chapter  of  the  king's 
appreciation  of  what  is  the  strength  of  a  man's  character, 
and  particularly  of  how  character  grows  by  grappling 
with  death.  In  this  matter  the  most  experienced  of 
Christian  saints  may  learn  from  Isaiah's  pupil. 

Isaiah  had  then,  without  doubt,  a  gospel  for  the 
individual ;  and  to  this  day  the  individual  may  plainly 
read  it  in  his  book,  may  truly,  strongly,  joyfully  live 
by  it — so  deeply  does  it  begin,  so  much  does  it  help  to 
self-knowledge  and  self-analysis,  so  lofty  are  the  ideals 
and  responsibilities  which  it  presents.  But  is  it  true 
that  Isaiah's  gospel  is  for  this  life  only  ? 


394  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH 

Was  Isaiah's  silence  on  the  immortality  of  the  indi- 
vidual due  wholly  to  the  cause  we  have  suggested  in 
the  beginning  of  this  chapter — that  God  gives  to  each 
prophet   his  single   problem,  and  that  the  problem  of 
Isaiah  was  the  endurance  of  the  Church  upon  earth  ? 
There  is  no  doubt  that  this  is  only  partly  the  explanation. 
The  Hebrew  belonged   to   a  branch  of  humanity — 
the  Semitic — which,  as  its  history  proves,  was  unable 
to    develop    any    strong    imagination    of,    or    practical 
interest  in,  a  future  life  apart  from  foreign  influence 
or    Divine   revelation.     The   pagan    Arabs   laughed  at 
Mahommed  when  he  preached  to  them  of  the  Resur- 
rection ;    and    even    to-day,    after  twelve  centuries   of 
Moslem   influence,  their  descendants   in  the  centre  of 
Arabia,  according  to  the  most  recent  authority,*  fail  to 
form  a  clear  conception  of,  or  indeed  to  take  almost  any 
practical    interest    in,   another   world.      The    northern 
branch  of  the  race,    to  which   the   Hebrews   belonged, 
derived  from  an  older  civilisation  a  prospect  of  Hades, 
that  their  own  fancy   developed  with  great  elaboration. 
This  prospect,  however,  which  we  shall  describe  fully 
in    connection    with    chaps,    xiv.    and    xxvi.,    was  one 
absolutely    hostile    to    the    interests    of    character    in 
this    life.     It    brought    all    men,    whatever    their    life 
had  been  on  earth,  at  last  to  a  dead  level  of  unsub- 
stantial and  hopeless  existence.     Good  and  evil,  strong 
end  weak,  pious  and  infidel,  alike  became  shades,  joy- 
less and  hopeless,  without  even  the  power  to  praise  God. 
We  have  seen  in  Hezekiah's  case  how  such  a  prospect 
unnerved  the  most  pious  souls,  and  that  revelation,  even 
though  represented  at  his  bedside  by  an  Isaiah,  ofl'ered 
him    no    hope    of  an    issue    from    it.      The    strength 

*  Doughty's  Arabia  Deserta:  Travels  in  Noflliern  Arabia.  \?>']6 — 1878, 


HAD  ISAIAH  A  GOSPEL  FOR  THE  INDIVIDUAL  ?    395 

of  character,  however,  which  Hezekiah  professes  to 
have  won  in  grappling  with  death,  added  to  the 
closeness  of  communion  with  God  which  he  enjoyed 
in  this  life,  only  brings  out  the  absurdity  of  such 
a  conclusion  to  life  as  the  prospect  of  Sheol  offered  to 
the  individual.  If  he  was  a  pious  man,  if  he  was  a 
man  who  had  never  felt  himself  deserted  by  God  in 
this  life,  he  was  bound  to  revolt  from  so  God-for- 
saken an  existence  after  death.  This  was  actually 
the  line  along  which  the  Hebrew  spirit  went  out  to 
victory  over  those  gloomy  conceptions  of  death,  that 
were  yet  unbroken  by  a  risen  Christ,  Tlioit  ivilt  not, 
the  saint  triumphantly  cried,  leave  my  soul  in  Sheol,  nor 
zvilt  Thou  suffer  Thine  holy  one  to  see  corruption.  It  was 
faith  in  the  almightiness  and  reasonableness  of  God's 
ways,  it  was  conviction  of  personal  rigliteousness,  it 
was  the  sense  that  the  Lord  would  not  desert  His  own 
in  death,  which  sustained  the  believer  in  face  of  that 
awful  shadow  through  which  no  light  of  revelation  had 
yet  broken. 

If  these,  then,  were  the  wings  by  which  a  believing 
soul  under  the  Old  Testament  soared  over  the  grave, 
Isaiah  may  be  said  to  have  contributed  to  the  hope  of 
personal  immortality  just  in  so  far  as  he  strengthened 
them.  By  enhancing  as  he  did  the  value  and  beauty  of 
individual  character,  by  emphasizing  the  indwelling  of 
God's  Spirit,  he  was  bringing  life  and  immortality  to  light, 
even  though  he  spoke  no  word  to  the  dying  about  the 
fact  of  a  glorious  life  beyond  the  grave.  By  assisting  to 
create  in  the  individual  that  character  and  sense  of  God, 
which  alone  could  assure  him  he  would  never  die,  but 
pass  from  the  praise  of  the  Lord  in  this  life  to  a  nearer 
enjoyment  of  His  presence  beyond,  Isaiah  was  working 
along  the  only  line  by  which  the  Spirit  of  God  seems  to 


396  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

have  assisted  the  Hebrew  mind  to  an  assurance  of 
heaven. 

But  further  in  his  favourite  gospel  of  the  Reasonable- 
ness OF  God — that  God  does  not  work  fruitlessly,  nor 
create  and  cultivate  with  a  view  to  judgement  and  de- 
;  truction — Isaiah  was  furnishing  an  argument  for  per- 
gonal immortality,  the  force  of  which  has  not  been  ex- 
hausted. In  a  recent  work  on  The  Destiny  of  Man  *  the 
philosophic  author  maintains  the  reasonableness  of  the 
Divine  methods  as  a  ground  of  belief  both  in  the  con- 
tinued progress  of  the  race  upon  earth  and  in  the 
immortality  of  the  individual.  "  From  the  first  dawning 
of  life  we  see  all  things  working  together  towards  one 
mighty  goal — the  evolution  of  the  most  exalted  and 
spiritual  faculties  which  characterize  humanity.  Has 
all  this  work  been  done  for  nothing?  Is  it  all 
ephemeral,  all  a  bubble  that  bursts,  a  vision  that  fades  ? 
On  such  a  view  the  riddle  of  the  universe  becomes  a 
riddle  without  a  meaning.  The  more  thoroughly  we 
comprehend  the  process  of  evolution  by  which  things 
have  come  to  be  what  they  are,  the  more  we  are  likely 
to  feel  that  to  deny  the  everlasting  persistence  of  the 
spiritual  element  in  man  is  to  rob  the  whole  process  of 
its  meaning.  It  goes  far  towards  putting  us  to  per- 
manent intellectual  confusion.  For  my  own  part,  I 
believe  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  not  in  the  sense 
in  which  I  accept  demonstrable  truths  of  science,  but 
as  a  supreme  act  of  faith  in  the  reasonableness  of  God's 
work." 

From  the  same  argument  Isaiah  drew  only  the 
former  of  these  two  conclusions.  To  him  the  certainty 
that  God's  people  would  survive  the  impending  deluge 

*  Bv  Professor  Fiske. 


HAD  ISAIAH  A  GOSPEL  FOR  THE  INDIVIDUAL?    397 

of  Assyria's  brute  force  was  based  on  his  faith  that  the 
Lord  is  a  God  of  jiidgciiienty  of  reasonable  law  and 
method,  and  could  not  have  created  or  fostered  so 
spiritual  a  people  only  to  destroy  them.  The  progress 
of  religion  upon  earth  was  certain.  But  does  not 
Isaiah's  method  equally  make  for  the  immortality  of 
the  individual  ?  He  did  not  draw  this  conclusion,  but 
he  laid  down  its  premises  with  a  confidence  and  rich- 
ness of  illustration  that  have  never  been  excelled. 

We,  therefore,  answer  the  question  we  put  at  the 
beginning  of  the  chapter  thus  : — Isaiah  had  a  gospel  for 
the  individual  for  this  life,  and  all  the  necessary  premises 
of  a  gospel  for  the  individual  for  the  life  to  come. 


BOOK  V. 

PROPHECIES   NOT  RELATING    TO 
ISAIAH'S   TIME. 


iSAIAH  : — 

xiii. — xiv.  a3 
xxiv. — xxvii 
xxxiv. 
xzxv. 


BOOK  V. 

IN  the  first  thirty-nine  chapters  of  the  Book  of 
Isaiah — the  half  which  refers  to  the  prophet's 
own  career  and  the  politics  contemporary  with  that 
— we  find  four  or  five  prophecies  containing  no 
reference  to  Isaiah  himself  nor  to  any  Jewish  king 
under  whom  he  laboured,  and  painting  both  Israel  and 
the  foreign  world  in  quite  a  different  state  from  that  in 
which  they  lay  during  his  lifetime.  These  prophecies 
are  chap,  xiii.,  an  Oracle  announcing  the  Fall  of 
Babylon,  with  its  appendix,  chap.  xiv.  I — 23,  the 
Promise  of  Israel's  Deliverance  and  an  Ode  upon  the 
Fall  of  the  Babylonian  T3'rant ;  chaps,  xxiv. — xxvii., 
a  series  of  Visions  of  the  breaking  up  of  the  universe, 
of  restoration  from  exile,  and  even  of  resurrection  from 
the  dead;  chap,  xxxiv.,  the  Vengeance  of  the  Lord  upon 
Edom  ;  and  cliap.  xxxv.,  a  Song  of  Return  from  Exile. 

In  these  prophecies  Assyria  is  no  longer  the  dominant 
world-force,  nor  Jerusalem  the  inviolate  fortress  of  God 
and  His  people.  If  Assyria  or  Egypt  is  mentioned,  it 
is  but  as  one  of  the  three  classical  enemies  of  Israel ; 
and  Babylon  is  represented  as  the  head  and  front  of 
the  hostile  world.  The  Jews  are  no  longer  in  political 
freedom  and  possession  of  their  own  land  ;  they  are 
either  in  exile  or  just  returned  from  it  to  a  depopu- 
lated country.  With  these  altered  circumstances  come 
another   temper   and    new    doctrine.     The    horizon    is 

VOL.  I.  26 


THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


different,  and  the  hopes  that  flush  in  dawn  upon  it  are 
not  quite  the  same  as  those  which  we  have  contemplated 
with  Isaiah  in  his  immediate  future.  It  is  no  longer  the 
repulse  of  the  heathen  invader ;  the  inviolateness  of 
the  sacred  city  ;  the  recovery  of  the  people  from  the 
shock  of  attack,  and  of  the  land  from  the  trampling  of 
armies.  But  it  is  the  people  in  exile,  the  overthrow 
of  the  tyrant  in  his  own  home,  the  opening  of  prison 
doors,  the  laying  down  of  a  highway  through,  the 
wilderness,  the  triumph  of  return  and  the  resumption 
of  worship.  There  is,  besides,  a  promise  of  the  resur- 
rection, which  we  have  not  found  in  the  prophecies 
we  have  considered. 

With  such  differences,  it  is  not  wonderful  that  many 
have  denied  the  authorship  of  these  few  prophecies  to 
Isaiah.  This  is  a  question  that  can  be  looked  at  calmly. 
It  touches  no  dogma  of  the  Christian  faith.  Especially 
it  does  not  involve  the  other  question,  so  often — and, 
we  venture  to  say,  so  unjustly — started  on  this  point, 
Could  not  the  Spirit  of  God  have  inspired  Isaiah  to 
foresee  all  that  the  prophecies  in  question  foretell,  even 
though  he  lived  more  than  a  century  before  the  people 
were  in  circumstances  to  understand  them  ?  Certainly, 
God  is  ahriighty.  The  question  is  not,  Could  He  have 
done  this?  but  one  somewhat  different:  Did  He  do 
it  ?  and  to  this  an  answer  can  be  had  only  from  the 
prophecies  themselves.  If  these  mark  the  Babylonian 
hostility  or  captivity  as  already  upon  Israel,  this  is 
a  testimony  of  Scripture  itself,  which  we  cannot  over- 
look, and  beside  which  even  unquestionable  traces  of 
similarity  to  Isaiah's  style  or  the  fact  that  these  oracles 
are  bound  up  with  Isaiah's  own  undoubted  prophecies 
have  little  weight.  "  Facts  "  of  style  will  be  regarded 
with   suspicion  by  any  one  who  knows  how  they  are 


BOOK   V.  403 

employed  by  both  sides  in  such  a  question  as  this  ; 
while  the  certainty  that  the  Book  of  Isaiah  was  put 
into  its  present  form  subsequently  to  his  life  will 
permit  of, — and  the  evident  purpose  of  Scripture  to 
secure  moral  impressiveness  rather  than  historical 
consecutiveness  will  account  for, — later  oracles  being 
bound  up  with  unquestioned  utterances  of  Isaiah. 

Only  one  of  the  prophecies  in  question  confirms  the 
tradition  that  it  is  by  Isaiah,  viz.,  chap,  xiii.,  which  bears 
the  title  Oracle  of  Babylon  zvhich  Isaiah,  son  oj  Amoz, 
did  see;  but  titles  are  themselves  so  much  the  report  of 
tradition,  being  of  a  later  date  than  the  rest  of  the  text, 
that  it  is  best  to  argue  the  question  apart  from  them. 

On  the  other  hand,  Isaiah's  authorship  of  these  pro- 
phecies, or  at  least  the  possibility  of  his  having  written 
them,  is  usually  defended  by  appealing  to  his  promise 
of  the  return  from  exile  in  chap.  xi.  and  his  threat  of 
a  Babylonish  captivity  in  chap,  xxxix.  This  is  an  argu- 
ment that  has  not  been  fairly  met  by  those  who  deny 
the  Isaianic  authorship  of  chap?,  xiii. — xiv.  23,  xxiv. — 
xxvii.,  and  xxxv.  It  is  a  strong  argument,  for  while,  as 
we  have  seen  (p.  20  r),  there  are  good  grounds  for  believ- 
ing Isaiah  to  have  been  likely  to  make  such  a  prediction 
of  a  Babylonish  captivity  as  is  attributed  to  him  in  chap, 
xxxix.  6,  almost  all  the  critics  agree  in  leaving  chap.  xi. 
to  him.  But  if  chap.  xi.  is  Isaiah's,  then  he  undoubtedly 
spoke  of  an  exile  much  more  extensive  than  had  taken 
place  by  his  own  day.  Nevertheless,  even  this  ability 
in  xi.  to  foretell  an  exile  so  vast  does  not  account  for 
pa.ssages  in  xiii. — xiv.  23,  xxiv. — xxvii.,  which  represent 
the  Exile  either  as  present  or  as  actually  over.  No  one 
who  reads  these  chapters  without  prejudice  can  fail  to 
feel  the  force  of  such  passages  in  leading  him  to  decide 
for  an  exilic  or  post-exil  0  authorship  (see  pp.  429  ff.^. 


404  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

Another  argument  against  attributing  these  pro- 
phecies to  Isaiah  is  that  their  visions  of  the  last 
things,  representing  as  they  do  a  judgement  on  the 
whole  world,  and  even  the  destruction  of  the  whole 
material  universe,  are  incompatible  with  Isaiah's  loftiest 
and  final  hope  of  an  inviolate  Zion  at  last  relieved  and 
secure,  of  a  land  freed  from  invasion  and  wondrously 
fertile,  with  all  the  converted  world,  Assyria  and  Egypt, 
gatheied  round  it  as  a  centre.  This  question,  however, 
is  seriously  complicated  by  the  fact  that  in  his  youth 
Isaiah  did  undoubtedly  prophesy  a  shaking  of  the  whole 
world  and  the  destruction  of  its  inhabitants,  and  by  the 
probability  that  his  old  age  survived  into  a  period,  whose 
abounding  sin  would  again  make  natural  such  wholesale 
predictions  of  judgement  as  we  find  in  chap.  xxiv. 

Still,  let  the  question  of  the  eschatology  be  as  obscure 
as  we  have  shown,  there  remains  this  clear  issue.  In 
some  chapters  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah,  which,  from  our 
knowledge  of  the  circumstances  of  his  times,  we  know 
must  have  been  published  while  he  was  alive,  we  learn 
that  the  Jewish  people  has  never  left  its  land,  nor  lost 
its  independence  under  Jehovah's  anointed,  and  that 
the  inviolateness  of  Zion  and  the  retreat  of  the  Assyrian 
invaders  of  Judah,  without  effecting  the  captivity  of  the 
Jews,  are  absolutely  essential  to  the  endurance  of 
God's  kingdom  on  earth.  In  other  chapters  we  find 
that  the  Jews  have  left  their  land,  have  been  long  in 
exile  (or  from  other  passages  have  just  returned),  and 
that  the  religious  essential  is  no  more  the  independ- 
ence of  the  Jewish  State  under  a  theocratic  king,  but 
only  the  resumption  of  the  Temple  worship.  Is  it 
possible  for  one  man  to  have  written  both  these  sets  of 
chapters  ?  Is  it  possible  for  one  age  to  have  produced 
them  ?     That  is  the  whole  question. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

BABYLON  AND  LUCIFER. 
[SAiAH  xii.  12 — xiv.  23  (date  uncertain). 

THIS  double  oracle  is  against  the  City  (xiii.   2^ 
xiv.  2)  and  the  Tyrant  (xiv.  3 — 23)  of  Babylon. 

I.  The  Wicked  City  (xiii.   2 — xiv.  23). 

The  first  part  is  a  series  of  hurried  and  vanishing 
scenes  —  glimpses  of  ruin  and  deliverance  caught 
through  the  smoke  and  turmoil  of  a  Divine  war.  The 
drama  opens  with  the  erection  of  a  gathering  standard 
upon  a  bare  mountain  (ver.  2).  He  who  gives  the  order 
explains  it  (ver.  3),  but  is  immediately  interrupted  by 
Hark  !  a  tumult  on  the  mountains,  like  a  great  people. 
Hark  !  the  surge  of  the  kingdoms  of  nations  gathering 
together.  Jehovah  of  hosts  is  mw^tering  the  host  of  war. 
It  is  the  day  of  Jchovali  that  is  near,  the  day  of  His 
war  and  of  His  judgement  upon  the  world. 

This  Old  Testament  expression,  the  day  of  the  Lord, 
starts  so  many  ideas  that  it  is  difficult  to  seize  any  one 
of  them  and  say  this  is  just  what  is  meant.  For  day 
with  a  possessive  pronoun  suggests  what  has  been  ap- 
pointed aforehand,  or  what  must  come  round  in  its 
turn  ;  means  also  opportunity  and  triumph,  and  also  swift 
performance  after  long  delay.  All  these  thoughts  are 
excited  when  we  couple  a  day  with  any  person's  name. 
And    therefore  as  with  every  davv^n  some  one  awakes 


4o6  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


saying,  This  is  my  day ;  as  with  every  dawn  comes 
some  one's  chance,  some  soul  gets  its  wish,  some  will 
shows  what  it  can  do,  some  passion  or  principle  issues 
into  fact :  so  God  also  shall  have  His  day,  on  which 
His  justice  and  power  shall  find  their  full  scope  and 
triumph.  Suddenly  and  simply,  like  any  dawn  that 
takes  its  turn  on  the  round  of  time,  the  great  decision 
and  victory  of  Divine  justice  shall  at  last  break  out 
of  the  long  delay  of  ages.  Howl  ye,  for  the  day  oj 
Jehovah  is  near ;  as  destruction  from  the  Destrnclive 
does  it  come.  Very  savage  and  quite  universal  is  its 
punishment.  Every  hitman  heart  melteth.  Countless 
faces,  white  with  terror,  light  up  its  darkness  like 
flames.  Sinners  are /o  be  exterminated  out  of  the  earth ; 
the  world  is  to  be  punished  for  its  iniquity.  Heaven, 
the  stars,  sun  and  moon  aid  the  horror  and  the 
darkness,  heaven  shivering  above,  the  earth  quaking 
beneath ;  and  between,  the  peoples  like  shepherdless 
sheep  drive  to  and  fro  through  awful  carnage. 

From  ver.  17  the  mist  lifts  a  little.  The  vague  turmoil 
clears  up  into  a  siege  of  Babylon  by  the  Medians,  and 
then  settles  down  into  Babylon's  ruin  and  abandonment 
to  wild  beasts.  Finally  (xiv.  l)  comes  the  religious 
reason  of  so  much  convulsion  :  For  Jehovah  will  have 
c  mipassion  upon  Jacob,  and  choose  again  Israel,  and 
settle  them  upon  their  own  ground;  and  the  foreign 
sojourner  shall  join  himself  to  them,  and  they  shall  asso- 
ciate themselves  to  the  house  of  Jacob. 

This  prophecy  evidently  came  to  a  people  already 
in  captivity — a  very  different  circumstance  of  the 
Church  of  God  from  that  in  which  we  have  seen  her 
under  Isaiah.  But  upon  this  new  stage  it  is  still  the 
same  old  conquest.  Assyria  has  fallen,  but  Babylon 
has  taken  her   place.     The    old   spirit  of  cruelty    and 


xii.  I2-X1V.  23.]     BABYLON  AND  LUCIFER.  407 

covetousness  has  entered  a  new  body ;  the  only  change 
is  that  it  has  become  wealth  and  luxury  instead  of 
brute  force  and  military  glory.  It  is  still  selfishness 
and  pride  and  atheism.  At  this,  our  first  introduction 
to  Babylon,  it  might  have  been  proper  to  explain  why 
throughout  the  Bible  from  Genesis  to  Revelation  this 
one  city  should  remain  in  fact  or  symbol  the  enemy  of 
God  and  the  stronghold  of  darkness.  But  we  post- 
pone what  may  be  said  of  her  singular  reputation, 
till  we  come  to  the  second  part  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah 
where  Babylon  plays  a  larger  and  more  distinct  role. 
Here  her  destruction  is  simply  the  most  striking 
episode  of  the  Divine  judgement  upon  the  whole  earth. 
Babylon  represents  civilisation ;  she  is  the  brow  of 
the  world's  pride  and  enmity  to  God.  One  distinctively 
Babylonian  characteristic,  however,  must  not  be  passed 
over.  With  a  ring  of  irony  in  his  voice,  the  prophet 
declares,  Bcliold,  I  stir  up  the  Modes  against  thee,  who 
regard  not  silver  and  take  no  pleasure  in  gold.  The 
worst  terror  that  can  assail  us  is  the  terror  of  forces, 
whose  character  we  cannot  fathom,  who  Vv'ill  not 
stop  to  parley,  who  do  not  understand  our  language 
nor  our  bribes.  It  was  such  a  power,  with  which 
the  resourceful  and  luxurious  Babylon  was  threatened. 
With  money  the  Babylonians  did  all  they  wished  to 
do,  and  believed  everything  else  to  be  possible.  They 
had  subsidised  kings,  bought  over  enemies^  seduced 
the  peoples  of  the  earth.  The  foe  whom  God  now  sent 
them  was  impervious  to  this  influence.  From  their 
pure  highlands  came  down  upon  corrupt  civilisation 
a  simple  people,  whose  banner  was  a  leathern  apron, 
whose  goal  was  not  booty  nor  ease  but  power  and 
mastery,  who  came  not  to  rob  but  to  displace. 

The     lessons    of    the    passage    are    two :    that    the 


4o8  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

people  of  God  are  something  distinct  from  civilisation, 
though  this  be  universal  and  absorbent  as  a  very 
Babylon ;  and  that  the  resources  of  civilisation  are 
not  even  in  material  strength  the  highest  in  the 
universe,  but  God  has  in  His  armoury  weapons  heed- 
less of  men's  cunning,  and  in  His  armies  agents 
impervious  to  men's  bribes.  Every  civilisation  needs 
to  be  told,  according  to  its  temper,  one  of  these  two 
things.  Is  it  hypocritical  ?  Then  it  needs  to  be  told 
that  civilisation  is  not  one  with  the  people  of  God. 
Is  it  arrogant?  Then  it  needs  to  be  told  that  the 
resources  of  civilisation  are  not  the  strongest  forces  in 
God's  universe.  Man  talks  of  the  triumph  of  mind 
over  matter,  of  the  power  of  culture,  of  the  elasticity 
of  civilisation ;  but  God  has  natural  forces,  to  which 
all  these  are  as  the  worm  beneath  the  hoof  of  the 
horse :  and  if  moral  need  arise.  He  will  call  His  brute 
forces  into  requisition.  Hoivl  ye,for  the  day  of  Jehovah 
is  near ;  as  deslnidion  from  the  Destructive  does  it  come. 
There  may  be  periods  in  man's  history  when,  in  opposi- 
tion to  man's  unholy  art  and  godless  civilisation,  God 
can  reveal  Himself  only  as  destruction. 

II.  The  Tyrant  (xiv.  3 — 23). 

To  the  prophecy  of  the  overthrow  of  Babylon  there 
is  annexed,  in  order  to  be  sung  by  Israel  in  the 
hour  of  her  deliverance,  a  satiric  ode  or  taunt-song 
(Heb.  mashal,  Eng.  ver.  parable^  upon  the  King  of 
Babylon.  A  translation  of  this  spirited  poem  in  the 
form  of  its  verse  (in  which,  it  is  to  be  regretted,  it 
has  not  been  rendered  by  the  English  revisers)  will 
be  more  instructive  than  a  full  commentary.  But  the 
following  remarks  of  introduction  are  necessary.  The 
word    masJial,    by   which    this  fde  is  entitled,   means 


xii.  12— xiv.  23.]    BABYLON  AND  LUCIFER.  4^9 

comparison,  similitude  or  parable,  and  was  applicable  to 
every  sentence  composed  of  at  least  two  members  that 
compared  or  contrasted  their  subjects.  As  the  great 
bulk  of  Hebrew  poetry  is  sententious,  and  largely  de- 
pends for  rhythm  upon  its  parallelism,  mashal  received 
a  general  application  ;  and  while  another  term — shir — ■ 
more  properly  denotes  lyric  poetry,  mashal  is  applied 
to  rhythmical  passages  in  the  Old  Testament  of  almost 
'  all  tempers  :  to  mere  predictions,  proverbs,  orations, 
satires  or  taunt-songs,  as  here,  and  to  didactic  pieces. 
The  parallelism  of  the  verses  in  our  ode  is  too  evident  to 
need  an  index.  But  the  parallel  verses  are  next  grouped 
into  strophes.  In  Hebrew  poetry  this  division  is 
frequently  effected  by  the  use  of  a  refrain.  In  our  ode 
there  is  no  refrain,  but  the  strophes  are  easily  distin- 
guished by  difference  of  subject-matter.  Hebrew  poetry 
does  not  employ  rhyme,  but  makes  use  of  assonance, 
and  to  a  much  less  extent  of  alliteration — a  form  which 
is  more  frequent  in  Hebrew  prose.  In  our  ode  there  is 
not  much  either  of  assonance  or  alliteration.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  ode  has  but  to  be  read  to  break  into 
a  certain  rough  and  swinging  rhythm.  This  is  produced 
by  long  verses  rising  alternate  with  short  ones  falling. 
Hebrew  verse  at  no  time  relied  for  a  metrical  effect  upon 
the  modern  device  of  an  equal  or  proportionate  number 
of  syllables.  The  longer  verses  of  this  ode  are  some- 
times too  short,  the  shorter  too  long,  variations  to  which 
a  rude  chant  could  readily  adapt  itself.  But  the  alter- 
nation of  long  and  short  is  sustained  throughout,  except 
for  a  break  at  vcr.  10  by  the  introduction  of  the  formula 
And  they  ansivcrcd  and  said,  which  evidently  ought  to 
stand  for  a  long  and  a  short  verse  if  the  number  of  double 
verses  in  the  second  strophe  is  to  be  the  same  as  it  is 
— seven — in  the  first  and  in  the  third. 


410  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 


The  scene  of  the  poem,  the  Underworld  and  abode  of 
the  shades  of  the  dead,  is  one  on  which  some  of  the 
most  splendid  imagination  and  music  of  humanity  has 
been  expended.  But  we  must  not  be  disappointed  if  we 
do  not  here  find  the  rich  detail  and  glowing  fancy  of 
Virgil's  or  of  Dante's  vision.  This  simple  and  even 
rude  piece  of  metre,  liker  ballad  than  epic,  ought  to 
excite  our  wonder  not  so  much  for  what  it  has  failed  to 
imagine  as  for  what,  being  at  its  disposal,  it  has  reso- 
lutely stinted  itself  in  employing.  For  it  is  evident 
that  the  author  of  these  lines  had  within  his  reach  the 
rich,  fantastic  materials  of  Semitic  mythology,  which 
are  familiar  to  us  in  the  Babylonian  remains.  Widi  an 
austerity,  that  must  strike  every  one  who  is  acquainted 
with  these,  he  uses  only  so  much  of  them  as  to  enable 
him  to  render  with  dramatic  force  his  simple  theme — 
the  vanity  of  human  arrogance.* 

For  this  purpose  he  employs  the  idea  of  the  Under- 
world which  was  prevalent  among  the  northern  Semitic 
peoples.  Sheol — the  gaping  or  craving  place — which  we 
shall  have  occasion  to  describe  in  detail  when  we  come 
to  speak  of  belief  in  the  resurrection, t  is  the  state 
after  death  that  craves  and  swallows  all  living.  There 
dwell  the  shades  of  men  amid  some  unsubstantial 
reflection  of  their  earthly  state  (ver.  9),  and  with  con- 
sciousness and   passion    only    sufficient    to   greet    the 


*  "Those  principles  of  natural  pliilosopby  which  smothered  the 
rehgions  of  the  East  with  tlieir  rank  and  injurious  growth  are  almost 
entirely  absent  from  the  religion  of  the  Hebrews.  Here  the  uiotive- 
power  of  development  is  to  be  found  in  ethical  ideas,  which,  though 
not  indeed  alien  to  the  life  of  otlicr  nations,  were  not  the  source  from 
which  their  religious  notions  were  derived." — (Lotze's  Microcosmos, 
ling.  Transl.,  ii.,  466.) 

t  P-  447  a 


xii.  12— xiv.  23-]    BABYLON  AND  LUCIFER.  411 

arrival  of  the  new-comer  and  express  satiric  wonder  at 
his  fall  (ver.  9).  With  the  arrogance  of  the  Babylonian 
kings,  this  tyrant  thought  to  scale  the  heavens  to  set  his 
throne  in  the  niounl  of  assembly  of  the  immortals,  to 
match  the  Most  High.^  But  his  fate  is  the  fate  of  all 
mortals — to  go  down  to  the  weakness  and  emptiness  of 
Sheol.  Here,  let  us  carefully  observe,  there  is  no  trace 
of  a  judgement  for  reward  or  punishment.  The  new 
victim  of  death  simply  passes  to  his  place  among  his 
equals.  There  was  enough  of  contrast  between  the 
arrogance  of  a  tyrant  claiming  Divinity  and  his  fall 
into  the  common  receptacle  of  mortality  to  point  the 
prophet's  moral  without  the  addition  of  infernal  tor- 
ment. Do  we  wish  to  know  the  actual  punishment  of 
his  pride  and  cruelty  ?  It  is  visible  above  ground 
(strophe  4) ;  not  with  his  spirit,  but  with  his  corpse ; 
j/Ot  with  himself,  but  with  his  wretched  family.  His 
corpse  is  unburied,  his  family  exterminated ;  his  name 
disappears  from  the  earth,  f 

Thus,  by  the  help  of  only  a  few  fragments  from  the 
popular   mythology,    the    sacred    satirist    achieves    his 


*  It  is,  however,  only  just  to  add  that,  as  Mr.  Sayce  has  pointed  out 
in  the  Hibbert  Lectures  for  1887  (p.  365),  the  claims  of  Babylonian 
kings  and  heroes  for  a  seat  on  the  mountain  of  the  gods  were  not 
always  mere  arrogance,  but  the  first  cflbrts  of  the  Babylonian  mind  to 
emancipate  itself  from  the  gloomy  conceptions  of  Hades  and  provide  a 
worthy  immortality  for  virtue.  Still  most  of  the  kings  who  pray 
for  an  entrance  among  the  gods  do  so  on  the  plea  that  they  have  been 
successful  tyrants — a  considerable  difference  from  such  an  assurance 
as  that  of  the  sixteenth  Psalm. 

f  The  popular  Semitic  conception  of  Hades  contained  within  it 
neither  grades  of  condition,  according  to  the  merits  of  men,  nor  any 
trace  of  an  infernal  torment  in  aggravation  of  the  unsubstantial  state 
to  which  all  are  equally  reduced.  This  statement  is  true  of  the 
Old  Testament  till   at  least  the  Book  of  Daniel.     Sheol  is  lit  by  no 


4T2  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

purpose.  His  severe  monotheism  is  remarkable  in 
its  contrast  to  Babylonian  poems  upon  similar  subjects. 
He  will  know  none  of  the  gods  of  the  underworld. 
In  place  of  the  great  goddess,  whom  a  Babylonian 
would  certainly  have  seen  presiding,  with  her  minions, 
over  the  shades,  he  personifies — it  is  a  frequent 
figure  of  Hebrew  poetry — the  abyss  itself.  Shcol 
shuddcrcih  at  thee.  It  is  the  same  when  he  speaks 
(ver.  13)  of  the  deep's  great  opposite,  that  mount  of 
assembly  of  the  gods,  which  the  northern  Semites 
believed  to  soar  to  a  silver  sky  in  the  recesses  of  the 
north  (ver.  14),  upon  the  great  range  which  in  that 
direction  bounded  the  Babylonian  plain.  This  Hebrew 
knows  of  no  gods  there  but  One,  whose  are  the 
stars,  who  is  the  Most  High.  Man's  arrogance  and 
cruelty  are  attempts  upon  His  majesty.  He  inevitably 
overwhelms  them.  Death  is  their  penalty  :  blood  and 
squalor  on  earth,  the  concourse  of  shuddering  ghosts 
below. 

The  kings  of  the  earth  set  themselves, 
And  the  riders  take  counsel  together, 
Against  the  Lord  and  against  His  Anointed. 
He  that  sittcth  in  the  heavens  shall  laugh ; 

The  Lord  shall  have  them  in  derision. 

He  who  has  heard   that  laughter  sees  no  comedy  in 
aught    else.       This   is    the   one    unfailing  subject   of 


lurid  fires,  such  as  made  Ihc  later  Christian  hell  intolerable  to  the  lost. 
That  life  is  unsubstantial ;  that  darkness  and  dust  abound  ;  above  all, 
that  God  is  not  there,  and  that  it  is  impossible  to  praise  Him,  is  all 
the  punishment  which  is  given  in  Sheol.  Extraordinary  vice  is 
punished  above  ground,  in  the  name  and  family  of  the  sinner.  Sheol, 
with  its  monotony,  is  for  aveiagemen;  but  extraordinary  piety  can 
break  away  from  it  (Ps.  xvi.). 


di.  12— xiv.  23.]     BABYLON  AND  LUCIFER.  413 

Hebrew  satire,  and  it  forms  the  irony  and   the  rigour 
of  the  following  ode.* 

The  only  other  remarks  necessary  are  these.  In 
ver.  9  the  Authorized  Version  has  not  attempted  to 
reproduce  the  humour  of  the  original  satire,  which 
styles  them  that  were  chief  men  on  earth  chief-goats 
of  the  herd,  bell-wethers.  The  phrase  they  that  g^, 
down  to  the  stones  of  the  pit  should  be  transferred  from 
ver.  19  to  ver.  20. 

And  thou  shall  lift  up  this  proverb  upon   the  King  of 
Babylon,  and  shall  say, — 

L 

Ah  I  stilled  is  the  tyrant, 

And  stilled  is  the  furyl 
Broke  hath  Jehovah  the  rod   of  the  wicked^ 

Sceptre  of  despots : 
Stroke  of  (the)  peoples  with  passion, 

Stroke  unremitting, 
Treading  in  wrath  (the)  nations, 

Trampling  unceasing. 
Quiet,  at  rest,  is  the  whole  earth, 

They  break  into  singing  ; 
Even  the  pines  are  jubilant  lor  thee, 

Lebanon's  cedars  ! 
**  Since  thou  liest  low,  comcth  not  up 

Feller  against  us." 

II. 
Sheol  from  under  shuddereth  at  thee 

To  meet  thine  arrival, 
Stirring  up  for  thee  the  shades. 

All  great-goats  of  earth  ! 
Lifteth  erect  from  their  thrones 

All  kings  of  peoples. 

*  Readers  will  remember  a  parallel  to  this  ode  in  Carl3'lc's  famous 
chapter  on  Louii  the  Unforgotten.  No  modern  has  rivalled  Carlylc 
in  his  inheritance  of  this  satire,  except  it  be  he  whom  Carlyle  called 
"  that  Tew  blackguard  Heine." 


414  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

10.  All  of  them  answer  mtd  say  to  thee, — 

"Thou,  too,  made  flaccid  like  us, 

To  us  hast  been  levelled  ! 
Hurled  to  Sheol  is  the  pride  of  thee^ 

Clang  of  the  harps  of  thee; 
Under  thee  strewn  are  (the)  maggots 

Thy  coverlet  worms." 

III. 

How  art  thou  fallen  from  heaven 

Daystar,  son  of  the  dawn 
(How)  art  thou  hewn  down  to  earth, 

Hurtler  at  nations. 
And  thou,  thou  didst  say  in  thine  lieaitj 

"  The  heavens  will  I  scale. 
Far  up  to  the  stars  of  God 

Lift  high  my  throne. 
And  sit  on  the  mount  of  assembly, 

Far  back  of  the  north, 
I  will  climb  on  the  heights  of  (the)  clou<^ 

I  will  match  the  Most  High  !" 
Ah  !  to  Sheol  thou  art  hurled, 

Far  back  of  the  pit  1 

IV. 

Who  see  thee  at  thee  are  gazing ; 

Upon  they  they  muse  : 
Is  this  the  man  that  staggered  the  earthy 

Shaker  of  kingdoms  ? 
Setting  the  world  like  the  desert, 

Its  cities  he  tore  down  ; 
Its  prisoners  l.e  loosed  not 

(Each  of  them)  homeward. 
All  kings  of  peoples,  yes  all. 

Are  lying  in  their  state; 
But  thou  !  thou  art  flung  from  thy  grav^ 

Like  a  stick  that  is  loathsome. 
Bcshrouded  with  slain,  the  pierced  of  the  swordf 

Like  a  corpse  that  is  trampled. 
They  that  go  down  to  the  stones  of  a  crypt, 

Shalt  not  be  with  them  in  burial. 
For  thy  land  thou  hast  ruined, 

Thy  people  hast  slaughtered- 


xii.  12— xiv.  23.]     BABYLON  AND  LUCIFER.  415 

Shall  not  be  mentioned  for  aye 

Seed  of  the  wicked  ! 
Set  for  his  children  a  shambles, 

For  guilt  of  their  fathers ! 
They  shall  not  rise,  nor  inherit  (the)  earth. 

Nor  fill  the  face  of  the  world  with  cities. 

V. 

But  I  will  arise  upon  them, 

Saj'eth  Jehovah  of  hosts ; 
And  I  will  cut  off  from  Babel 

Record  and  remnant, 
And  scion  and  seed, 

Saith  Jehovah  : 
Yea,  I  will  make  it  the  bittern's  heritage, 

Marshes  of  water  I 
And  I  will  sweep  it  with  sweeps  of  destruction 

Sayeth  Jehovah  of  hosts. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

THE  EFFECT  OF  SIN    ON    OUR    MATERIAL 

CIRCUMSTANCE. 

Isaiah  xxiv.  {date  uncertain). 

THE  twenty-fourth  of  Isaiah  is  one  of  those 
chapters,  which  almost  convince  the  most 
persevering  reader  of  Scripture  that  a  consecutive 
reading  of  the  Authorized  Version  is  an  impossibility. 
For  what  does  he  get  from  it  but  a  weary  and  un- 
intelligent impression  of  destruction,  from  which  he 
gladly  escapes  to  the  nearest  clear  utterance  of  gospel 
or  judgement?  Criticism  affords  little  help.  It  cannot 
clearly  identify  the  chapter  with  any  historical  situation. 
For  a  moment  there  is  a  gleam  of  a  company  standing 
outside  the  convulsion,  and  to  the  west  of  the  prophet, 
while  the  prophet  himself  suffers  captivity.*  But  even 
this  fades  before  we  make  it  out ;  and  all  the  rest  of  the 
chapter  has  too  universal  an  application — the  language 
is  too  imaginative,  enigmatic  and  even  paradoxical — to 
be  applied    to  an  actual  historical   situation,  or  to  its 

*  Vv.  14 — 16,  which  are  very  pcrplcxhig.  In  14  a  company 
IS  introduced  to  us  very  vaguelj'  as  those  or  yonder  ones,  who  are 
represented  as  seeing  the  bright  side  of  the  convulsion  which  is 
the  subject  of  the  chapter.  They  cry  aloud  jrom  the  sea  ;  that  is,  from 
the  west  of  the  prophet.  He  is  therefore  in  the  east,  and  in 
captivity,  in  the  centre  of  the  convulsion.  The  problem  is  to  find 
any  actual  historical  situation,  in  which  part  of  Israel  was  in  the 
east  in  captivity,  and  part  in  the  west  free  and  full  of  reasons  for 
praising  God  for  the  calamity,  out  of  which  their  bretiiren  saw  no 
escape  for  themselves. 


xxiv.]  THE  MATERIAL  EFFECTS   OF  SIN.  417 

development  in  the  immediate  future.  This  is  an  ideal 
description,  the  apocalyptic  vision  of  a  last,  great  day 
of  judgement  upon  the  whole  world;  and  perhaps  the 
moral  truths  are  all  the  more  impressive  that  the  reader 
is  not  distracted  by  temporary  or  local  references. 

With  the  very  first  verse  the  prophecy  leaps  far 
beyond  all  particular  or  national  conditions  :  BeJwld, 
Jehovah  shall  be  emptying  the  earth  and  rifling  it;  and  He 
shall  turn  it  upside  down  and  scatter  its  inhabitants. 
This  is  expressive  and  thorough ;  the  words  are  those 
which  were  used  for  cleaning  a  dirty  dish.  To  the 
completeness  of  this  opening  verse  there  is  really 
nothing  in  the  chapter  to  add.  All  the  rest  of  the 
verses  only  illustrate  this  upturning  and  scouring  of 
the  material  universe.  For  it  is  with  the  material 
universe  that  the  chapter  is  concerned.  Nothing  is 
said  of  the  spiritual  nature  of  man — little,  indeed,  about 
man  at  all.  He  is  simply  called  the  inhabitant  of  the 
earth,  and  the  structure  of  society  (ver.  2)  is  intro- 
duced only  to  make  more  complete  the  effect  of  the 
convulsion  of  the  earth  itself.  Man  cannot  escape 
those  judgements  which  shatter  his  material  habitation. 
It  is  like  one  of  Dante's  visions.  Terror,  and  Pit  and 
Snare  upon  thee,  O  inhabitant  of  the  earth  !  And  it  shall 
come  to  pass  that  he  who  Jleeth  from  the  noise  of  the  Terror 
shall  fall  into  the  Pit,  and  he  who  coineth  up  out  of  the 
midst  of  the  Pit  shall  be  taken  in  the  Snare.  For  the 
windows  on  high  are  opened,  and  the  foundations  of  the 
earth  do  shake.  Broken,  utterly  broken,  is  the  earth; 
shattered,  utterly  shattered,  the  earth;  staggering,  very 
staggering,  the  earth;  reeling,  the  earth  recleth  like  a 
drunken  nuin :  she  swingeth  to  and  fro  like  a  hammock. 
And  so  through  the  rest  of  the  chapter  it  is  the 
material  life  of  man  that  is  cursed :  the  new  loine,  the 

VOL.  I.  27 


4i8  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIJII. 

vine,  the  tabrets,  the  harp,  the  song,  and  the  inerriness  in 
men's  hearts  which  these  call  forth.  Nor  does  the 
chapter  confine  itself  to  the  earth.  The  closing  verses 
carry  the  effect  of  judgement  to  the  heavens  and  far 
limits  of  the  material  universe.  The  host  of  the  high 
ones  on  high  (ver.  21)  are  not  spiritual  beings,  the 
angels.  They  are  material  bodies,  the  stars.  Then, 
too,  shall  the  moon  he  confounded,  and  the  stars  ashamed, 
when  the  Lord's  kingdom  is  established  and  His  right- 
eousness made  gloriously  clear. 

What  awful  truth  is  this  for  illustration  of  which  we 
see  not  man,  but  his  habitation,  the  world  and  all  its 
surroundings,  lifted  up  by  the  hand  of  the  Lord,  broken 
open,  wiped  out  and  shaken,  while  man  himself,  as  if 
only  to  heighten  the  effect,  staggers  hopelessly  like 
some  broken  insect  on  the  quaking  ruins  ?  What 
judgement  is  this,  in  which  not  only  one  city  or  one 
kingdom  is  concerned,  as  in  the  last  prophecy  of  which 
we  treated,  but  the  whole  earth  is  convulsed,  and  moon 
and  sun  confounded  ? 

The  judgement  is  the  visitation  of  man's  sins  on  his 
material  surroundings — The  earth's  transgression  shall 
be  heavy  upon  it;  and  it  shall  rise,  and  not  fall.  The 
'truth  on  which  this  judgement  rests  is  that  between 
man  and  his  material  circumstance — the  earth  he 
inhabits,  the  seasons  which  bear  him  company  through 
time  and  the  stars  to  which  he  looks  high  up  in 
heaven — there  is  a  moral  S3'mpathy.  The  earth  also  is 
profaned  under  the  inhabitants  thereof,  because  they  have 
transgressed  the  lawSy  changed  the  ordinance,  broken  the 
everlasting  covenant. 

The  Bible  gives  no  support  to  the  theory  that  matter 
itself  is  evil.  God  created  all  things;  and  God  saw 
everything  that  He  had  vade  ;  and,  behold,  it  was  very  good. 


xxiv.]  THE  MATERIAL  EEFECTS   OF  SIN.  419 

When,  therefore,  we  read  in  the  Bible  that  the  earth 
is  cursed,  we  read  that  it  is  cursed  for  man's  sake; 
when  we  read  of  its  desolation,  it  is  as  the  effect  of  man's 
crime.  The  Flood,  the  destruction  of  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah,  the  plagues  of  Egypt  and  other  great  physical 
catastrophes  happened  because  men  were  stubborn  or 
men  were  foul.  We  cannot  help  noticing,  however,  that 
matter  was  thus  convulsed  or  destroyed,  not  only  for 
the  purpose  of  punishing  the  moral  agent,  but  because 
of  some  poison  which  had  passed  from  him  into  the 
unconscious  instruments,  stage  and  circumstance  of 
his  crime.  According  to  the  Bible,  there  would  appear 
to  be  some  mysterious  sympathy  betv^een  man  and 
Nature.  Man  not  only  governs  Nature ;  he  infects  and 
informs  her.  As  the  moral  life  of  the  soul  expresses 
itself  in  the  physical  life  of  the  body  for  the  latter's 
health  or  corruption,  so  the  conduct  of  the  human 
race  affects  the  physical  life  of  the  universe  to  its 
farthest  limits  in  space.  When  man  is  reconciled  to 
God,  the  wilderness  blossoms  like  a  rose ;  but  the  guilt 
of  man  sullies,  infects  and  corrupts  the  place  he 
inhabits  and  the  articles  he  employs;  and  their  destruc- 
tion becomes  necessary,  not  for  his  punishment  so  much 
as  because  of  the  infection  and  pollution  that  is  in  them. 
The  Old  Testament  is  not  contented  with  a  general 
statement  of  this  great  principle,  but  pursues  it  to  all 
sorts  of  particular  and  private  apphcations.  The  curses 
of  the  Lord  fell,  not  only  on  the  sinner,  but  on  his 
dwelling,  on  his  property  and  even  on  the  bit  of  ground 
these  occupied.  This  was  especially  the  case  with  regard 
to  idolatry.  When  Israel  put  a  pagan  population  to  the 
sword,  they  were  commanded  to  raze  the  city,  gath-  r 
its  wealth  together,  burn  all  that  was  burnable  and  put 
the  rest  into  the  temple  of  the  Lord  .as  a  thing  dcvuted 


420  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

or  accursed,  which  it  would  harm  themselves  to  share 
(Deut.  vii.  25,  26  ;  xiii.  7).  The  very  site  of  Jericho  was 
cursed,  and  men  were  forbidden  to  build  upon  its 
horrid  waste.  The  story  of  Achan  illustrates  the  same 
principle. 

It  is  just  this  principle  which  chap.  xxiv.  extends 
to  the  whole  universe.  What  happened  in  Jericho 
because  of  its  inhabitants'  idolatry  is  now  to  happen  to 
the  whole  earth  because  of  man's  sin.^  The  earth  also 
is  profane  under  her  inhabitants,  because  th.ey  Jiave 
transgressed  the  lazvs,  changed  the  ordinance,  broken  the 
everlasting  covenant.  In  these  words  the  prophet  takes 
us  away  back  to  the  covenant  with  Noah,  which  he 
properly  emphasizes  as  a  covenant  with  all  mankind. 
With  a  noble  universalism,  for  which  his  race  and  their 
literature  get  too  little  credit,  this  Hebrew  recognises 
that  once  all  mankind  were  holy  unto  God,  who  had 
included  them  under  His  grace,  that  promised  the  fixed- 
ness and  fertility  of  nature.  But  that  covenant,  though 
of  grace,  had  its  conditions  for  man.  These  had  been 
broken.  The  race  had  grown  wicked,  as  it  was  before 
the  Flood ;  and  therefore,  in  terms  which  vividly  recall 
that  former  judgement  of  God — the  windows  on  high  are 
opened — the  prophet  foretells  a  new  and  more  awful 
catastrophe.  One  word  which  he  employs  betrays  how 
close  he  feels  the  moral  sympathy  to  be  between  man 
and  his  world.  The  earth,  he  says,  is  profane.  This  is  a 
word,  whose  root  meaning  is  that  ivhich  has  fallen  away 
or  separated  itself,  which  is  delinquent.  Sometimes,  per- 
haps, it  has  a  purely  moral  significance,  like  our  word 
"  abandoned  "  in  the  common  acceptance  :  he  who  has 
fallen  far  and  utterly  into  sin,  the  reckless  sinner.  But 
mostly  it  has  ratiicr  the  reh"gious  meaning  of  one  who 
lias  filltn  oui  of  the  covenant  relation  with  God  an 


xxiv.]  THE  MATERIAL  EFFECTS  OF  SIN.  421 

the  relevant  benefits  and  privileges.  Into  this  covenant 
not  only  Israel  and  their  land,  but  humanity  and  the 
whole  world,  have  been  brought.  Is  man  under  cove- 
nant grace?  The  world  is  also.  Does  man  fall  ?  So 
does  the  world,  becoming  with  him  profane.  The  con- 
sequence of  breaking  the  covenant  oath  was  expressed 
in  Hebrew  by  a  technical  word  ,  and  it  is  this  word 
which,  translated  curse,  is  applied  in  ver.  6  to  the 
earth. 

The  whole  earth  is  to  be  broken  up  and  dissolved. 
What  then  is  to  become  of  the  people  of  God — the  in- 
destructible remnant  ?  Where  are  they  to  settle  ?  In 
this  new  deluge  is  there  a  new  ark  ?  For  answer  the 
prophet  presents  us  with  an  old  paradise  (ver.  23).  He 
has  wrecked  the  universe;  but  he  says  now,  Jehovah  of 
hosts  shall  dwell  in  Mount  Zion  and  in  Jerusaleui.  It  would 
be  impossible  to  find  a  better  instance  of  the  limitations 
of  Old  Testami^-nt  prophecy  than  this  return  to  the  old 
dispensation  after  the  old  dispensation  has  been  com- 
mitted to  the  flames.  At  such  a  crisis  as  the  confla- 
gration of  the  universe  for  the  sin  of  man,  the  hope  of 
the  New  Testament  looks  for  the  creation  of  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth,  but  there  is  no  scintilla  of 
such  a  hope  in  this  prediction.  The  imagination  of 
the  Hebrew  seer  is  beaten  back  upon  the  theatre  his 
conscience  has  abandoned.  He  knows  "  the  old  is  out 
of  date,"  but  for  him  "  the  new  is  not  3'et  born  ; "  and, 
therefore,  convinced  as  he  is  that  the  old  must  pass 
away,  he  is  forced  to  borrow  from  its  ruins  a  pro- 
visional abode  for  God's  people,  a  figure  for  the  truth 
which  grips  him  so  firmly,  that,  in  spite  of  the  death  of 
all  the  universe  for  man's  sin,  there  must  be  a  visible- 
ness  and  locality  of  the  Divine  majesty,  a  place  where 
the  people  of  God  may  gather  to  bless  His  holy  name. 


422  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

In  this  contrast  of  the  power  of  spiritual  imagination 
possessed  respectively  by  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
we  must  not,  however,  lose  the  ethical  interest  which 
the  main  lesson  of  this  chapter  has  for  the  individual 
conscience.  A  breaking  universe,  the  great  day  of 
judgement,  may  be  too  large  and  too  far  off  to  impress 
our  conscience.  But  each  of  us  has  his  own  world — 
body,  property  and  environment — which  is  as  much 
and  as  evidently  affected  by  his  own  sins  as  our  chapter 
represents  the  universe  to  be  by  the  sins  of  the 
race. 

To  grant  that  the  moral  and  physical  universes  are 
from  the  same  hand  is  to  affirm  a  sympathy  and  mutual 
reaction  between  them.  This  affirmation  is  confirmed  by 
experience,  and  this  experience  is  of  two  kinds.  To  the 
guilty  man  Nature  seems  aware,  and  flashes  back  from  her 
larger  surfaces  tlie  magnified  reflection  of  his  own  self- 
contempt  and  terror.  But,  besides,  men  are  also  unable 
to  escape  attributing  to  the  material  instruments  or  sur- 
roundings of  their  sin  a  certain  infection,  a  certain  power 
of  recommunicating  to  their  imaginations  and  memories 
the  desire  for  sin,  as  well  as  of  inflicting  upon  them  the 
pai;i  and  penalty  of  the  disorder  it  has  produced  among 
themselves.  Sin,  though  born,  as  Christ  said,  in  the 
heart,  has  immediately  a  material  expression ;  and  we 
may  follow  this  outwards  through  man's  mind,  body  and 
estate,  not  only  to  find  it  "hindering,  disturbing,  com- 
plicating all,"  but  reinfecting  with  the  lust  and  odour 
of  sin  the  will  which  gave  it  birth.  As  sin  is  put  forth 
by  the  will,  or  is  cherished  in  the  heart,  so  we  find 
error  cloud  the  mind,  impurity  the  imagination,  misery 
the  feelings,  and  pain  and  weariness  infect  the  flesh  and 
bone.  God,  who  modelled  it,  alone  knows  how  far  man's 
physical  form  has  been  degraded  by  the  sinful  thoughts 


THE  MATERIAL  EFFECTS   OF  SIN.  423 


and  habits  of  which  for  ages  it  has  been  the  tool  and 
expression ;  but  even  our  eyes  may  sometimes  trace 
the  despoiler,  and  that  not  only  in  the  case  of  what  are 
preferably  named  sins  of  the  flesh,  but  even  with  lusts 
that  do  not  require  for  their  gratification  the  abuse  of 
the  body.  Pride,  as  one  might  think  the  least  fleshly 
of  all  the  vices,  leaves  yet  in  time  her  damning  signa- 
ture, and  will  mark  the  strongest  faces  with  the  sad 
symptoms  of  that  mental  break-down,  for  which  unre- 
strained pride  is  so  often  to  blame.  If  sin  thus 
disfigures  the  body,  we  know  that  sin  also  infects  the 
body.  The  habituated  flesh  becomes  the  suggester  of 
crime  to  the  will  which  first  constrained  it  to  sin,  and 
now  wearily,  but  in  vain,  rebels  against  the  habits  of  its 
instrument.  But  we  recall  all  this  about  the  body  only 
to  say  that  what  is  true  of  the  body  is  true  of  the  soul's 
greater  material  surroundings.  With  the  sentence  Thou 
shalt  surely  die,  God  connects  this  other  :  Cursed  ts  the 
ground  for  thy  sake. 

When  we  pass  from  a  man's  body,  the  wrapping  we 
find  next  nearest  to  his  soul  is  his  property.  It  has 
always  been  an  instinct  of  the  race,  that  there  is  nothing 
a  man  may  so  infect  with  the  sin  of  his  heart  as  his 
handiwork  and  the  gains  of  his  toil.  And  that  is  a  true 
instinct,  for,  in  the  first  place,  the  making  of  property 
perpetuates  a  man's  own  habits.  If  he  is  successful  in 
business,  then  every  bit  of  wealth  he  gathers  is  a  con- 
firmation of  the  motives  and  tempers  in  which  he  con- 
ducted his  business.  A  man  deceives  himself  as  to 
this,  saying.  Wait  till  I  have  made  enough  ;  then  I  will 
put  away  the  meanness,  the  harshness  and  the  dis- 
honesty v/ith  which  I  made  it.  He  shall  not  be  able. 
Just  because  he  has  been  successful,  he  will  continue  in 
his  haliit  without  thinking;  just  because  there  has  been 


424  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

no  break-down  to  convict  of  folly  and  suggest  penitence, 
so  he  becomes  hardened.  Property  is  a  bridge  on 
which  our  passions  cross  from  one  part  of  our  life  to 
another.  The  Germans  have  an  ironical  proverb  :  "  The 
man  who  has  stolen  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  can 
afford  to  live  honestly."  The  emphasis  of  the  iroi  y 
falls  on  the  words  in  italics  :  he  can  afford,  but  never 
does.  His  property  hardens  his  heart,  and  keeps  him 
from  repentance. 

But  the  instinct  of  humanity  has  also  been  quick  to 
this  :  that  the  curse  of  ill-gotten  wealth  passes  like  bad 
blood  from  father  to  child.  What  is  the  truth  in  this 
matter  ?  A  glance  at  history  will  tell  us.  The  accumu- 
lation of  property  is  the  result  of  certain  customs,  habits 
and  laws.  In  its  own  powerful  interest  property  per- 
petuates these  down  the  ages,  and  infects  the  fresh  air 
of  each  new  generation  with  their  temper.  How  often  in 
the  history  of  mankind  has  it  been  property  gained  under 
unjust  laws  or  cruel  monopolies  which  has  prevented  the 
abolition  of  these,  and  carried  into  gentler,  freer  times 
the  pride  and  exclusiveness  of  the  age,  by  whose  rude 
habits  it  was  gathered.  This  moral  transference,  which 
we  see  on  so  large  a  scale  in  public  history,  is  repeated 
to  some  extent  in  every  private  bequest.  A  curse  docs 
not  necessarily  follow  an  estate  from  the  sinful  producer 
of  it  to  his  heir  ;  but  the  latter  is,  by  the  bequest  itself ^ 
generally  brought  into  so  close  a  contact  with  his  pre- 
decessor as  to  share  his  conscience  and  be  in  sympathy 
with  his  temper.  And  the  case  is  common  where  an 
heir,  though  absolutely  up  to  the  date  of  his  succession 
separate  from  him  who  made  and  has  left  the  property, 
nevertheless  finds  himself  unable  to  alter  the  methods, 
or  to  escape  the  temper,  in  which  the  property  has  been 
managed.      In   nine  cases  out  of  ten   property  carries 


xxiv.]  THE  MATERIAL   EFFECTS   OF  SIN.  425 

conscience  and  transfers  habit;    if  the  guilt  does  not 
descend,   the  infection  does. 

When  we  pass  from  the  effect  of  sin  upon  property 
to  its  effect  upon  circumstance,  we  pass  to  what  we 
can  affirm  with  even  greater  conscience.  Man  has 
the  power  of  permanently  soaking  and  staining  his 
surroundings  with  the  effect  of  sins  in  themselves 
momentary  and  transient.  Sin  increases  terribly  by 
the  mental  law  of  association.  It  is  not  the  gin-shop 
and  the  face  -of  wanton  beauty  that  alone  tempt  men 
to  sin.  Far  more  subtle  seductions  are  about  every 
one  of  us.  That  we  have  the  power  of  inflicting  our 
character  upon  the  scenes  of  our  conduct  is  proved 
by  some  of  the  dreariest  experiences  of  life.  A  failure 
in  duty  renders  the  place  of  it  distasteful  and  enervat- 
ing. Are  we  irritable  and  selfish  at  home  ?  Then  home 
is  certain  to  be  depressing,  and  little  helpful  to  our 
spiritual  growth.  Are  we  selfish  and  niggardl}'  in  the 
interest  we  take  in  others  ?  Then  the  congregation 
we  go  to,  the  suburb  we  dwell  in,  will  appear  insipid 
and  unprofitable  ;  we  shall  be  past  the  possibility 
of  gaining  character  or  happiness  from  the  ground 
where  God  planted  us  and  meant  us  to  grow. 
Students  have  been  idle  in  their  studies  till  every 
time  they  enter  them  a  reflex  languor  comes  down 
like  stale  smoke,  and  the  room  they  desecrated  takes 
its  revenge  on  them.  We  have  it  in  our  power  to  make 
our  workshops,  our  laboratories  and  our  studies  places 
of  magnificent  inspiration,  to  enter  which  is  to  receive 
a  baptism  of  industry  and  hope;  and  we  have  power 
to  make  it  impossible  ever  to  work  in  them  again  at 
full  pitch.  The  pulpit,  the  pew,  the  very  communion- 
table, come  under  this  law.  If  a  minister  of  God  have 
made  up  his  mind  to  say  nothing  from  his  accustomed 


426  THE  BOOK  OF  ISALUI 

place,  v/hich  has  not  cost  him  toil,  to  feci  nothing  but 
a  dependence  on  God  and  a  desire  for  souls,  then  he 
will  never  set  foot  there  but  the  power  of  the  Lord 
shall  be  upon  him.  But  there  are  men  who  would 
rather  set  foot  anywhere  than  in  their  pulpit — men 
who  out  of  it  are  full  of  fellowship,  information, 
and  infective  health,  but  there  they  are  paralysed 
with  the  curse  of  their  idle  past.  How  history  shows 
us  that  the  most  sacred  shelters  and  institutions  of 
man  become  tainted  wuth  sin,  and  are  destroyed  in 
revolution  or  abandoned  to  decay  by  the  intolerant 
conscience  of  younger  generations  !  How  the  hidden 
life  of  each  man  feels  his  past  sins  possessing  his 
home  and  hearth,  his  pew,  and  even  his  place  at  the 
Sacrament,  till  it  is  sometimes  better  for  his  soul's 
health  to  avoid  these ! 

Such  considerations  give  a  great  moral  force  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  Old  Testament  that  man's  sin  has 
rendered  necessary  the  destruction  of  his  material  cir- 
cumstances, and  that  the  Divine  judgement  includes 
a  broken  and  a  rifled  universe. 

The  New  Testament  has  borrowed  this  vision  from 
the  Old,  but  added,  as  we  have  seen,  with  greater 
distinctness,  the  hope  of  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth. 
We  have  not  concluded  the  subject,  however,  when  we 
have  pointed  tiiis  out,  for  the  New  Testament  has 
another  gospel.  The  grace  of  God  affects  even  the 
material  results  of  sin  ;  the  Divine  pardon  that  converts 
the  sinner  converts  his  circumstance  also ;  Christ  Jesus 
sanctifies  even  the  flesh,  and  is  the  Physician  of  the  body 
as  well  as  the  Saviour  of  the  soul.  .To  Him  physical 
evil  abounds  only  that  He  may  show  forth  His  glory 
in  curing  it.  NeiiJicr  did  tJiis  man  sin  nor  his  parents^ 
hut  tJiat  the  works  of  God  shoidd  be  made  manifest  in 


xxiv.]  THE   MATERIAL  EFFECTS   OF  SIN.  427 

///;;/.  To  Paul  the  zvliole  creation  groancth  and 
iravailcth  with  the  sinner  ////  now,  the  hour  of  the 
sinner's  redemption.  The  Gospel  bestows  an  evan- 
gelic liberty  which  permits  the  strong  Christian  to 
partake  of  meats  offered  to  idols.  And,  finally,  all  tilings 
work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God,  for  although 
to  the  converted  and  forgiven  sinner  the  material 
pains  which  his  sins  have  brought  on  him  may  con- 
tinue into  his  new  life,  they  are  experienced  by  him 
no  more  as  the  just  penalties  of  an  angry  God,  but 
as  the  loving,  sanctifying  chastisements  of  his  Father 
in  heaven. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

GOD'S  POOR. 
Isaiah  xxv. — xxvii.  (date  uncertain). 

WE  have  seen  that  no  more  than  the  faintest 
gleam  of  historical  reflection  brightens  the 
obscurity  of  chap,  xxiv.,  and  that  the  disaster  which 
lowers  there  is  upon  too  world-wide  a  scale  to  be 
forced  within  the  conditions  of  any  single  period  in  the 
fortunes  of  Israel.  In  chaps,  xxv, — xxvii.,  which  may 
naturally  be  held  to  be  a  continuation  of  chap,  xxiv., 
the  historical  allusions  are  more  numerous.  Indeed,  it 
might  be  said  they  are  too  numerous,  for  they  con- 
tradict one  another  to  the  perplexity  of  the  most  acute 
critics.  They  imply  historical  circumstances  for  the 
prophecy  both  before  and,  after  the  exile.  On  the  one 
hand,  the  blame  of  idolatry  in  Judah  (xxvii.  9),  the 
mention  of  Assyria  and  Egypt  (xxvii.  12,  13),  and  the 
absence  of  the  name  of  Babylon  are  indicative  of  a 
pre-exilic  date.*  Arguments  from  style  are  always 
precarious;  but  it  is  striking  that  some  critics,  who 
deny  that  chaps,  xxiv. — xxvii.  can  have  come  as  a  whole 
from  Isaiah's  time,  profess  to  see  his  hand  in  certain 
passages.!      Then,     secondly,    through     these    verses 

*The  mention  of  Moab  (xxv.  lo,  ll)  is  also  consistent  with  a  pre- 
exilic  date,  but  does  not  neccssaril3'  imply  it. 
"^  E.g.,  xxv.  6 — 8,  10,  II  ;  xxvii.   lO,  ii,  9,  12,  13. 


XXV.— xxvii.]  GOD'S  POOR.  429 

which  point  to  a  pre-exiHc  date  there  are  woven, 
almost  inextricably,  phrases  of  actual  exile :  expres- 
sions of  the  sense  of  living  on  a  level  and  in  contact 
with  the  heathen  (xxvi.  9,  10);  a  request  to  God's  people 
to  withdraw  from  the  midst  of  a  heathen  public  to 
the  privacy  of  their  chambers  (20,  21);  prayers  and 
promises  of  deliverance  from  the  oppressor  (passim)  ; 
hopes  of  the  establishment  of  Zion,  and  of  the  re- 
population  of  the  Holy  Land.  And,  thirdly,  some 
verses  imply  that  the  speaker  has  already  returned  to 
Zion  itself:  he  says  more  than  once,  in  tJiis  mountain ; 
there  are  hymns  celebrating  a  deliverance  actually 
achieved,  as — God  has  done  a  marvel.  For  Thou  hast 
made  a  citadel  into  a  heap,  a  fortified  city  into  a  nun,  a 
castle  of  strangers  to  be  no  city,  not  to  he  built  again. 
Such  phrases  do  not  read  as  if  the  prophet,  were 
creating  for  the  lips  of  his  people  a  psalm  of  triumph 
against  a  far  future  deliverance ;  they  have  in  them  the 
ring  of  what  has  already  happened. 

This  bare  statement  of  the  allusions  of  the  prophecy 
will  give  the  ordinary  reader  some  idea  of  the  difficul- 
ties of  Biblical  criticism.  What  is  to  be  made  of  a 
prophecy  uttering  the  catch-words  and  breathing  the 
experience  of  three  distinct  periods  ?  One  solution  of 
the  difficulty  may  be  that  we  have  here  the  composition 
of  a  Jew  already  returned  from  exile  to  a  desecrated 
sanctuary  and  depopulated  land,  who  has  woven 
through  his  original  utterances  of  complaint  and  hope 
the  experience  of  earlier  oppressions  and  deliverances, 
using  even  the  names  of  earlier  tyrants.  In  his  im- 
mediate past  a  great  city  that  oppressed  the  Jews  has 
fallen,  though,  if  this  is  Babylon,  it  is  strange  that 
he  nowhere  names  it.  But  his  intention  is  rather 
religious    than   historical ;    he  seeks  to  give  a  general 


430  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

representation  of  the  attitude  of  the  world  to  the 
people  of  God,  and  of  the  judgement  which  God  brings 
on  the  world.  This  view  of  the  composition  is  sup- 
ported by  either  of  two  possible  interpretations  of 
that  difficult  verse  xxvii.  lO:  In  that  day  Jehovah  with 
His  sword,  the  hard  and  the  great  and  the  strong,  shall 
perform  visitation  upon  Leviathan,  Serpent  Elusive,  and 
upon  Leviathan,  Serpent  Tortuous;  and  He  shall  slay  the 
Dragon  that  is  in  the  sea.  Cheyne  treats  these  monsters 
as  mythic  personifications  of  the  clouds,  the  darkness 
and  the  powers  of  the  air,  so  that  the  verse  means  that, 
just  as  Jehovah  is  supreme  in  the  physical  world.  He 
shall  be  in  the  moral.  But  it  is  more  probable  that 
the  two  Leviathans  mean  Assyria  and  Babylon — the 
Elusive  one,  Assyria  on  the  swift-shooting  Tigris ;  the 
Tortuous  one,  Babylon  on  the  winding  Euphrates — 
while  the  Dragon  that  is  in  the  sea  or  the  west  is 
Egypt.  But  if  the  prophet  speaks  of  a  victory  over 
Israel's  three  great  enemies  all  at  once,  that  means  that 
he  is  talking  universally  or  ideally ;  and  this  impression 
is  further  heightened  by  the  mythic  names  he  gives 
them.  Such  arguments,  along  with  the  undoubted 
post-exilic  fragments  in  the  prophecy,  point  to  a  late 
date,  so  that  even  a  very  conservative  critic,  who  is 
satisfied  that  Isaiah  is  the  author,  admits  that  "  the 
possibility  of  exilic  authorship  does  not  allow  itself  to 
be  denied." 

If  this  character  which  we  attribute  to  the  prophecy 
be  correct — viz.,  that  it  is  a  summary  or  ideal  account 
of  the  attitude  of  the  alien  world  to  Israel,  and  of 
the  judgement  God  has  ready  for  the  world — -then, 
though  itself  be  exilic,  its  place  in  the  Book  of  Isaiah 
is  intelligible.  Chaps,  xxiv. — xxvii.  fitly  crown  the 
long  list  of  Isaiali's  oracles  upon  the  foreign  nations  ; 


XXV.— xxvii.]  GOD'S   POOR.  431 

they  finally  formulate  the  purposes  of  God  towards  the 
nations  and  towards  Israel,  whom  the  nations  have 
oppressed.  Our  opinions  must  not  be  final  or  dogmatic 
about  this  matter  of  authorship  ;  the  obscurities  are 
not  nearly  cleared  up.  But  if  it  be  ultimately  found 
certain  that  this  prophecy,  which  lies  in  the  heart  of 
the  Book  of  Isaiah,  is  not  by  Isaiah  himself,  that 
need  neither  startle  nor  unsettle  us.  No  doctrinal 
question  is  stirred  by  such  a  discovery,  not  even  that 
of  the  accuracy  of  the  Scriptures.  For  that  a  book  is 
entitled  by  Isaiah's  name  does  not  necessarily  mean 
that  it  is  all  by  Isaiah ;  and  we  shall  feel  still  less 
compelled  to  believe  that  these  chapters  are  his  when 
we  find  other  chapters  called  by  his  name  while  these 
are  not  said  to  be  by  him.  In  truth  there  is  a  difficulty 
here,  only  because  it  is  supposed  that  a  book  entitled 
by  Isaiah's  name  must  necessarily  contain  nothing  but 
what  is  Isaiah's  own.  Tradition  may  have  come  to  say 
so ;  but  the  Scripture  itself,  bearing  as  it  does  unmis- 
takable marks  of  another  age  than  Isaiah's,  tells  us  that 
tradition  is  wrong :  and  the  testimony  of  Scripture  is 
surely  to  be  preferred,  especially  when  it  betrays,  as  Ave 
have  seen,  sufficient  reasons  why  a  prophecy,  though 
not  Isaiah's,  was  attached  to  his  genuine  and  undoubted 
oracles.  In  any  case,  however,  as  even  the  conserva- 
tive critic  whom  we  have  quoted  admits,  "  for  the 
religious  value"  of  the  prophecy  "the  question"  of 
the  authorship  "  is  thoroughly  irrelevant." 

We  shall  perceive  this  at  once  as  we  now  turn 
to  see  what  is  the  religious  value  of  our  prophecy. 
Chaps.  XXV, — xxvii.  stand  in  the  front  rank  of  evan- 
gelical prophecy.  In  their  experience  of  religion,  their 
characterisations  of  God's  people,  tlieir  expressions  of 
laith,  their  missionary  hopes  and  hopes  of  immortality, 


432  TUL:  book  of  ISAIAH. 

they  are  very  rich  and  edifying.      Perhaps  their  most 
signal  feature  is  their  designation  of  the  people  of  God. 
In  this  collection  of  prayers  and  hymns  the  people  of 
God  are  not  regarded  as  a  political  body.     They  are 
only  once  called  the  nation  and  spoken  of  in  connection 
with  a  territory  (xxvi.  15).     Only  twice  are  they  named 
with  the  national  names  of  Israel  and  Jacob  (xxvii.  6,  9, 
12).     We  miss  Isaiah's  promised  king,  his  pictures  of 
righteous  government,  his  emphasis  upon  social  justice 
and   purity,  his  interest  in  the  foreign   politics   of  his 
State,  his  hopes  of  national  grandeur  and  agricultural 
felicity.     In  these  chapters  God's  people  are  described 
by    adjectives    signifying    spiritual    qualities.       Their 
nationality  is   no  more    pleaded,    only    their    suffering 
estate    and    their  hunger  and   thirst  after    God.     The 
ideals    that   are   presented   for  the   future    are    neither 
political   nor  social,  but   ecclesiastical.     We  saw   how 
closely  Isaiah's   prophesying  was   connected   with   the 
history  of  his  time.     The  people  of  this  prophecy  seem 
to  have  done  with  history,  and  to  be  interested  only  in 
worship.     And   along  with   the  assurance  of  the  con- 
tinued establishment  of  Zion  as  the  centre  for  a  secure 
and  holy  people,  filling  a  secure  and  fertile  land, — with 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  the  undoubted  visions  of  Isaiah 
content  themselves,  while  silent  as  to  the  fate  of  the 
individuals  who  drop  from  this  future  through  death,—  - 
we  have  the  most  abrupt  and  thrilling  hopes  expressed 
for  the  resurrection  of  these  latter  to  share  in  the  glory 
of  the  redeemed  and  restored  community. 

Among  the  names  applied  to  God's  people  there  are 
three  which  were  destined  to  pla}^  an  enormous  part  in 
the  history  of  religion.  In  the  English  version  these 
appear  as  two :  poor  and  needy;  but  in  the  original 
they  are  three.     In  cliap.  xxv.  4  :  Thou  hast  been  a 


XXV.— xxvil.]  GOD'S  POOR.  433 

stronghold  to  the  poor  and  a  stronghold  to  the  needy,  poor 
renders  a  Hebrew  word,  "dal,"  literally  wavering, 
tottering,  infirm,  then  slender  or  lean,  then  poor  in 
fortune  and  estate  ;  needy  literally  renders  the  Hebrew 
"  'ebhyon,"  Latin  egeniis.  In  chap.  xxvi.  6  :  the  Joot  oj 
the  poor  and  the  steps  of  the  needy,  needy  renders  "  dal," 
while  poor  renders  '"ani,"  a  passive  form— forced, 
afflicted,  oppressed,  then  wretched,  whether  under  per- 
secution, poverty,  loneliness  or  exile,  and  so  tamed, 
mild,  meek.  These  three  words,  in  their  root  ideas 
of  infirmity,  need  and  positive  affliction,  cover  among 
them  every  aspect  of  physical  poverty  and  distress. 
Let  us  see  how  they  came  also  to  be  the  expression  of 
the  highest  moral  and  evangelical  virtues. 

If  there  is  one  thing  which  distinguishes  the  people 
of  the  revelation  from  other  historical  nations,  it  is  the 
evidence  afforded  by  their  dictionaries  of  the  power  to 
transmute  the  most  afflicting  experiences  of  life  into 
virtuous  disposition  and  effectual  desire  for  God.  We 
see  this  most  clearly  if  we  contrast  the  Hebrews'  use  of 
their  words  for  poor  with  that  of  the  first  language  which 
v/as  employed  to  translate  these  words—  the  Greek  in 
the  Septuagint  version  of  the  Old  Testament.  In 
the  Greek  temper  there  was  a  noble  pity  for  the  un- 
fortunate ;  the  earliest  Greeks  regarded  beggars  as 
the  peculiar  proteges  of  Heaven.  Greek  philosophy 
developed  a  capacity  for  enriching  the  soul  in  mis- 
fortune ;  Stoicism  gave  imperishable  proof  of  how 
bravely  a  man  could  hold  poverty  and  pain  to  be  things 
indifferent,  and  how  much  gain  from  such  indifference 
he  could  bring  to  his  soul.  But  in  the  vulgar  opinion 
of  Greece  penury  and  sickness  were  always  disgraceful ; 
and  Greek  dictionaries  mark  the  degradation  of  terms, 
which  at  first  merely  noted  physical  disadvantage,  into 

VOL.    I.  28 


434  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

epithets  of  contempt  or  hopelessness.  It  is  very  striking 
that  it  was  not  till  they  were  employed  to  translate  the 
Olc  Testament  ideas  of  poverty  that  the  Greek  words 
foi  "  poor  "  and  "  lowly  "  came  to  bear  an  honourable 
significance.  And  in  the  case  of  the  Stoic,  who  endured 
poverty  or  pain  with  such  indifference,  was  it  not  just 
this  indifference  that  prevented  him  from  discovering 
in  his  tribulations  the  rich  evangelical  experience  which, 
as  we  shall  see,  fell  to  the  quick  conscience  and  sensi- 
tive nerves  of  the  Hebrew  ? 

Let  us  see  how  this  conscience  was  developed.  In 
the  East  poverty  scarcely  ever  means  ph3'sical  dis- 
advantage alone :  in  its  train  there  follow  higher 
disabilities.  A  poor  Eastern  cannot  be  certain  of 
fair  play  in  the  courts  of  the  land.  He  is  very  often  a 
wronged  man,  with  a  fire  of  righteous  anger  burning  in 
his  breast.  Again,  and  niore  important,  misfortune  is 
to  the  quick  religious  instinct  of  the  Oriental  a  sign  of 
God's  estrangem,cnt.  With  us  misfoitune  is  so  often 
only  the  cruelty,  sometimes  real  sometimes  imagined, 
of  the  rich ;  the  unemployed  vents  his  wrath  at  the 
capitalist,  the  tramp  shakes  his  fist  after  the  carri.-ige 
on  the  highv>ay.  In  the  East  they  do  not  forget  to 
curse  the  rich,  but  they  remeniber  as  well  to  humble 
themselves  ber.eath  the  hand  of  God.  With  an  un- 
foitunate  Oriental  the  conviction  is  supreme,  God 
is  angry  with  me  ;  I  have  lost  His  favour.  His  soul 
eagerly  longs  for  God. 

A  poor  man  in  the  East  has,  therefore,  not  only 
a  hunger  for  food  :  he  hns  the  hotter  hunger  for  justice, 
the  deeper  hunger  for  Gcd.  Poverty  in  itself,  without 
extraneous  teaching,  de\elops  nobler  appetites.  The 
physical,  becomes  the  moral,  pauper;  poor  in  subsfance, 
he  grciws  poor  in  spirit.     It  was  by  developing,  with  the 


XXV.-  xxvii.]  GOnS  POOR.  435 

aid  of  God's  Spirit,  this  quick  conscience  and  this  deep 
desire  for  God,  which  in  the  East  are  the  very  soul  ol 
physical  poverty,  that  the  Jews  advanced  to  that  sense 
of  evangeHcal  poverty  of  heart,  blessed  by  Jesus  in 
the  first  of  His  Beatitudes  as  the  possession  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven. 

Till  the  Exile,  however,  the  poor  were  only  a  portion 
of  the  people.  In  the  Exile  the  whole  nation  became 
poor,  and  henceforth  "  God's  poor "  might  become 
synonymous  with  "  God's  peoide."  This  was  the  time 
when  the  words  received  their  spiritual  baptism. 
Israel  felt  the  physical  curse  of  poverty  to  its  extreme 
of  famine.  The  pains,  privations  and  terrors,  which 
the  glib  tongues  of  our  comfortable  middle  classes,  as 
they  sing  the  psalms  of  Israel,  roll  off  so  easily  for 
symbols  of  their  own  spiritual  experience,  were  felt 
by  the  captive  Hebrews  in  all  their  concrete  physical 
effects.  The  noble  and  the  saintl}',  the  gentle  and  the 
cultured,  priest,  soldier  and  citizen,  woman,  youth  and 
child,  were  torn  from  home  and  estate,  were  deprived 
of  civil  standing,  were  imprisoned,  fettered,  flogged 
and  starved  to  death.  We  learn  something  of  what 
it  must  have  been  from  the  words  which  Jeremiah 
addressed  to  Baruch,  a  youth  of  good  family  and 
line  culture :  Seckest  Ihoii  great  things  for  thyself? 
Seek  thejii  not,  for,  behold,  I  zvill  bring  evil  upon  all 
flesh,  saith  the  Lord;  only  thy  life  will  I  give  unto  thee 
fur  a  prey  in  all  places  whither  thou  goest.  Imagine 
a  whole  nation  plunged  into  poverty  of  this  degree — 
not  born  into  it  having  known  no  better  things,  nor 
stunted  into  it  with  sensibility  and  the  power  of  ex- 
pression sapped  out  of  them,  but  plunged  into  it,  with 
the  unimpaired  culture,  conscience  and  memories  of  the 
flower  of   the    people.      When    God's  own    hand  sent 


43 


z6  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAL1H. 


fresh  from  Himself  a  poet's  soul  into  "the  clay  biggin'" 
of  an  Ayrshire  ploughman,  what  a  revelation  we  re- 
ceived of  the  distress,  the  discipline  and  the  graces  of 
poverty !  But  in  the  Jewish  nation  as  it  passed  into 
exile  there  were  a  score  of  hearts  with  as  unimpaired 
an  appetite  for  life  as  Robert  Burns;  and,  worse  than  he, 
they  went  to  feel  its  pangs  away  from  home.  Genius, 
conscience  and  pride  drank  to  the  dregs  in  a  foreign 
land  the  bitter  cup  of  the  poor.  The  Psalms  and 
Lamentations  show  us  how  they  bore  their  poison.  A 
Greek  Stoic  might  sneer  at  the  complaint  and  sobbing, 
the  self-abasement  so  strangely  mixed  with  fierce  cries 
for  vengeance.  But  the  Jew  had  within  him  the 
conscience  that  will  not  allow  a  man  to  be  a  Stoic.  He 
never  forgot  that  it  was  for  his  sin  he  suffered,  and 
therefore  to  him  suffering  could  not  be  a  thing  in- 
different. With  this,  his  native  hunger  for  justice 
reached  in  captivity  a  famine  pitch ;  his  sense  of  guilt 
was  equalled  by  as  sincere  an  indignation  at  the  tyrant 
who  held  him  in  his  brutal  grasp.  The  feeling  of 
estrangement  from  God  increased  to  a  degree  that 
only  the  exile  of  a  Jew  could  excite  :  the  longing  for 
God's  house  and  the  worship  lawful  only  there  ;  the 
longing  for  the  relief  which  onl}^  the  sacrifices  of  the 
Temple  could  bestow ;  the  longing  for  God's  own 
presence  and  the  light  of  His  face.  My  soul  thirsielh 
for  Thee  J  my  flesh  longcih  after  Thee,  in  a  dry  and  thirsty 
land,  where  no  water  is,  a.'?  /  have  looked  tipon  Thee 
in  the  sanctuary,  to  see  Thy  power  and  Thy  glory.  For 
Thy  lovingkindness  is  better  than  life  ! 

Thy  lovingkindness  is  better  than  life  ! — is  the  secret 
of  it  all.  There  is  that  which  excites  a  deeper  hunger 
in  the  soul  than  the  hunger  for  life,  and  for  the  food 
rind    money  that    give    life.     This  spiritual  poverty  is 


xxv.-xxvii.]  GOD'S  POOR.  437 

most  richly  bred  in  physical  penury,  it  is  strong 
enough  to  displace  what  feeds  it.  The  physical 
poverty  of  Israel  which  had  awakened  these  other 
hungers  of  the  soul — hunger  for  forgiveness,  hunger 
for  justice,  hunger  for  God — was  absorbed  by 
them ;  and  when  Israel  came  out  of  exile,  to  be  poor 
meant,  not  so  much  to  be  indigent  in  tliis  world's 
substance  as  to  feel  the  need  of  pardon,  the  absence 
of  rigbiteousness,  the  want  of  God. 

It  is  at  this  time,  as  we  have  seen,  that  Isa.  xxiv. — 
xxvii.  was  written  ;  and  it  is  in  the  temper  of  this  time 
that  the  three  Hebrew  words  for  "poor"  and  "needy" 
are  used  in  chaps,  xxv.  and  xxvi.  The  returned  exiles 
were  still  politically  dependent  and  abjectly  poor.  Their 
discipline  therefore  continued,  and  did  not  allow  them 
to  forget  their  new  lessons.  In  fact,  they  developed 
the  results  of  these  further,  till  in  this  prophecy  we 
find  no  fewer  than  five  dilTerent  aspects  of  spiritual 
poverty. 

1.  We  have  already  seen  how  strong  the  sense  of  sin 
is  in  chap.  xxiv.  This  poverty  of  peace  is  not  so  fully 
expressed  in  the  following  chapters,  and  indeed  seems 
crowded  out  by  the  sense  of  the  iniquity  of  the  inhabitants 
of  tJie  earth  and  the  desire  for  their  judgement  (xxvi.  2l). 

2,  The  feeling  of  the  poverty  of  justice  is  very 
strong  in  this  prophecy.  But  it  is  to  be  satisfied ;  in 
part  it  has  been  satisfied  (xxv.  I — 4).  A  strong  city, 
probably  Babylon,  has  fallen.  Moab  shall  be  trodden 
down  in  his  place,  even  as  straiv  is  trodden  down  in  the 
water  of  the  dunghill.  The  complete  judgement  is  to  come 
when  the  Lord  shall  destroy  the  two  Leviathans  and  the 
great  Dragon  of  the  zvest  (xxvii.  l).  It  is  followed  by  the 
restoration  of  Israel  to  the  state  in  which  Isaiah  (chap 
V.  I )  sang  so  sweetly  of  her.  yl  pleasant  vineyard,  sijigye  of 


438  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

her.  I,  Jehovah,  her  Keeper,  moment  by  uioiuent  do  I  water 
her;  lest  any  make  a  raid  upon  her,  iiiglit  and  day  will  1 
keep  her.  The  Hebrew  text  then  reads,  Fury  is  not  in 
Me ;  but  probably  the  Septuaghit  version  has  preserved 
the  original  meaning :  /  have  no  walls.  If  this  be 
correct,  then  Jehovah  is  describing  the  present  state  of 
Jerusalem,  the  fulfilment  of  Isaiah's  threat,  chap,  v,  6  : 
Walls  I  have  not;  let  there  but  be  briers  and  thorns 
before  me  !  With  war  will  I  stride  aj^ainst  them  ;  I  zvili 
burn  them  toi^ellier.  But  then  there  breaks  the  softer 
alternative  of  the  reconciliation  of  Judah's  eneuiies  :  Or 
else  let  him  seize  hold  of  My  strength;  let  him  make  peace 
with  Me— peace  let  him  make  with  Me.  In  such  a  peace 
Israel  shall  spread,  and  his  fulness  become  the  riches  ol 
the  Gentiles.  In  that  by-and-bye  Jacob  shall  take  root, 
Israel  blossom  and  bud,  and  fill  the  face  of  the  world  with 
fruit. 

Perhaps  the  vialdest  cries  that  rose  from  Israel's 
famine  of  justice  were  those  which  found  expression  in 
chap,  xxxiv.  This  chapter  is  so  largely  a  repetition  oi 
feelings  we  have  already  met  with  elsewhere  in  the 
Book  of  Isaiah,  that  it  is  necessary  now  only  to  micn- 
tion  its  original  features.  The  subject  is,  as  in  chap, 
xiii.,  the  Lord's  judgement  upon  all  the  nations ;  and 
as  chap.  xiii.  singled  out  Babylon  for  special  doom, 
so  chap,  xxxiv.  singles  out  Edom.  The  reason  of  this 
distinction  will  be  very  plain  to  the  reader  of  the  Old 
Testament.  From  the  day  the  twins  struggled  in  their 
mother  Rebekah's  womb,  Israel  and  Edom  were  at  either 
open  war  or  burned  towards  each  other  with  a  hate,  which 
was  the  more  intense  for  wanting  opportunities  of  grati- 
fication. It  is  an  Eastern  edition  of  the  worst  chapters 
in  the  history  of  England  and  Ireland.  No  bloodier 
ma^cacres    stained   Jewish    hands    than    those    which 


XXV.— xxvii.]  GOD'S  POOR.  439 

attended  their  invasions  of  Edom,  and  Jewish  psahns  of 
vengeance  are  never  more  flagrant  than  when  they  touch 
the  name  of  the  children  of  Esau.  The  only  gentle 
utterance  of  the  Old  Testament  upon  Israel's  here- 
ditary foe  is  a  comfortless  enigma.  Isaiah's  Oracle  for 
Duinah  (xxii.  1 1  f.),  shows  that  even  that  large-hearted 
prophet,  in  face  of  his  people's  age-long  resentment  at 
Edom's  total  want  of  appreciation  of  Israel's  spiritual 
superiority,  could  offer  Edom,  though  for  the  moment 
submissive  and  inquiring,  nothing  but  a  sad,  ambigu- 
ous answer.  Edom  and  Israel,  each  after  his  fashion, 
exulted  in  the  other's  misfortunes:  Israel  by  bitter 
satire  when  Edam's  impregnable  mountain-range  was 
treacherously  seized  and  overrini  by  his  allies  (Obadiah 
4 — 9);  Edom,  with  the  harassing,  pillaging  habits  of  a 
highland  tribe,  hanging  on  to  the  skirts  of  Judah's 
great  enemies,  and  cutting  off  Jewish  fugitives,  or  sell- 
ing them  into  slavery,  or  malignantly  completing  the 
ruin  of  Jerusalem's  walls  after  her  overthrow  by  the 
Chaldeans  (Obadiah  10 — 14;  Ezek.  xxxv.  10 — 15; 
Ps.  cxxxi.  7).  In  the  quarrel  of  Zioii  with  the  nations  of 
the  world  Edom  had  taken  the  wrong  side, — his  profane, 
earthy  nature  incapable  of  understanding  his  brother's 
spiritual  claims,  and  therefore  envious  of  him,  with  the 
brutal  malice  of  ignorance,  and  spitefully  glad  to  assist 
in  disappointing  such  claims.  This  is  what  we  must 
remember  when  we  read  the  indignant  verses  of 
chap,  xxxiv.  Israel,  conscious  of  his  spiritual  call- 
ing in  the  world,  felt  bitter  resentment  that  his  own 
brother  should  be  so  vulgarly  hostile  to  his  attempts  to 
carry  it  out.  It  is  not  our  wish  to  defend  the  temper 
of  Israel  towards  Edom.  The  silence  of  Christ  before 
i.he  Edomite  Herod  and  his  men  of  war  has  taught  the 
spiritual  servants  of  God  what  is  their  proper  attitude 


440  THE  BOOK   OF  ISAIAH. 

towards  the  malignant  and  obscene  treatment  of  their 
claims  by  vulgar  men.  But  at  least  let  us  remember 
that  chap,  xxxiv.,  for  all  its  fierceness,  is  inspired  by 
Israel's  conviction  of  a  spiritual  destiny  and  service  for 
God,  and  by  the  natural  resentment  that  his  own  kith 
and  kin  should  be  doing  their  best  to  render  these  futile. 
That  a  famine  of  bread  m.akes  its  victims  delirious  does 
not  tempt  us  to  doubt  the  genuineness  of  their  need  and 
suffering.  As  little  ought  we  to  doubt  or  to  ignore 
the  reality  or  the  purity  of  those  spiritual  convictions, 
the  prolonged  starvation  of  which  bred  in  Israel  such 
feverish  hate  against  his  twin-brother  Esau.  Chap, 
xxxiv.,  with  all  its  proud  prophecy  of  judgement,  is, 
therefore,  also  a  symptom  of  that  aspect  of  Israel's 
poverty  of  heart,  which  we  have  called  a  hunger  for  the 
Divine  justice. 

3.  Poverty  of  the  Exile.  But  as  fair  flowers 
bloom  upon  rough  stalks,  so  from  Israel's  stern  chal- 
lenges of  justice  there  break  sweet  prayers  for  home. 
Chap,  xxxiv.,  the  effusion  of  vengeance  on  Edoni,  is 
followed  by  chap,  xxxv.,  the  going  forth  of  hope  to  the 
return  from  exile  and  the  establishment  of  the  ransomed 
of  the  Lord  in  Zion.*  Chap.  xxxv.  opens  with  a  pro- 
spect beyond  the  return,  but  after  the  first  two  verses 
addresses  itself  to  the  people  still  in  a  foreign  captivity, 
speaking  of  their  salvation  (vv.  3,  4),  of  the  miracles 
that  will  take  place  in  themselves  (vv.  5,  6)  and  in  the 
desert  between  them  and  their  home  (vv.  6,  7),  of  the 

*  Even  at  the  risk  of  incurring  Canon  Cheync's  charge  of  "ineradi- 
cable error,"  I  feci  I  must  keep  to  the  older  view  of  chap.  xxxv. 
which  makes  it  refer  to  the  return  from  exile.  No  doubt  the  chapter 
covers  more  than  the  mere  return,  and  includes  "the  glorious  con- 
dition of  Israel  after  the  return;"  but  vv.  4  and  10  are  undoubtedly 
addressed  to  Jews  still  in  exile  and  undelivered. 


XXV.— xxvii.]  GOD'S  POOR.  441 

highway  which  God  shall  build,  evident  and  secure 
(vv.  8,  9),  and  of  the  final  arrival  in  Zion  (ver.  10).  In 
that  march  the  usual  disappointments  and  illusions  of 
desert  life  shall  disappear.  The  mirage  shall  become  a 
pool;  and  the  clump  of  vegetation  which  afar  off  the 
hasty  traveller  hails  for  a  sign  of  water,  but  which  on 
his  approach  he  discovers  to  be  the  withered  grass  of  a 
jackaVs  lair,  shall  indeed  be  reeds  and  rushes,  standing 
green  in  fresh  water.  Out  of  this  exuberant  fertility 
there  emerges  in  the  prophet's  thoughts  a  great  high- 
way, on  which  the  poetry  of  the  chapter  gathers  and 
reaches  its  climax.  Have  we  of  this  nineteenth  century, 
with  our  more  rapid  means  of  passage,  not  forgotten 
the  poetry  of  the  road  ?  Are  we  able  to  appreciate 
either  the  intrinsic  usefulness  or  the  gracious  symbolisni 
of  the  king's  highway  ?  How  can  we  know  it  as  the 
Bible-writers  or  our  forefathers  knew  it  when  they  made 
the  road  the  main  line  of  their  allegories  and  parables 
of  life  ?  Let  us  Hsten  to  these  verses  as  they  strike  the 
three  great  notes  in  the  music  of  the  road:  And  an  high- 
way shall  be  there,  and  a  way;  yea,  The  Way  of  Holiness 
shall  it  be  called,  for  the  unclean  shall  not  pass  over  it  • 
that  is  what  is  to  distinguish  this  road  from  all  other 
roads.  But  here  is  what  it  is  as  being  a  road.  First, 
it  shall  be  unmistakably  plain  :  The  voayfaring  man, 
yea  fools,  shall  not  err  therein.  Second,  it  shall  be 
perfectly  secure  :  No  lion  shall  be  there,  nor  shall  any 
ravenous  beast  go  up  thereon ;  they  shall  not  be  met  with 
there.  Third,  it  shall  bring  to  a  safe  arrival  and  ensure 
a  complete  overtaking:  And  the  ransomed  of  the  Lord 
shall  return  and  come  with  singing  unio  Zion,  and  ever- 
lasting joy  shall  be  upon  their  heads;  they  shall  overtake 
gladness  and  joy,  ayid  sorrow  and  sighing  shall  flee  away. 
4.  So    Israel    was    to    come    home.     But   to   Israel 


442  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

home  meant  the  Temple,  and  the  Temple  meant  God. 
The  poverty  of  the  Exile  was,  in  the  essence  of  it, 
POVERTY  OF  God,  poverty  of  love.  The  prayers  which 
express  this  are  very  beautiful, — that  trail  like  wounded 
animals  to  the  feet  of  their  master,  and  look  up  in  His 
face  with  large  eyes  of  pain.  And  they  shall  say  in  that 
day,  Lo,  this  is  our  God:  we  have  waited  for  Him,  that 
He  should  save  us;  this  is  the  LORD  :  we  have  waited  for 
Him;  we  will  rejoice  and  be  glad  in  His  salvation.  .  .  • 
Yea,  in  the  way  of  Thy  ordinances,  O  LORD,  have  we 
waited  for  Thee;  to  Thy  name  and  to  Thy  Memorial  was 
the  desire  of  our  soul.  With  my  soul  have  I  desired  Thee 
in  the  night;  yea,  by  my  spirit  within  me  do  I  seek  Thee 
with  dawn  (chaps,  xxv.  9 ;  xxvi.  8). 

An  Arctic  explorer  was  once  asked,  whether  during 
eight  months  of  slow  starvation  which  he  and  his 
comrades  endured  they  suffered  much  from  the  pangs 
.  of  hunger.  No,  he  answered,  we  lost  them  in  the 
sense  of  abandonment,  in  the  feeling  that  our  coun- 
trymen had  forgotten  us  and  were  not  coming  to 
the  rescue.  It  was  not  till  we  were  rescued  and 
looked  in  human  faces  that  we  felt  how  hungry  we 
were.  So  is  it  ever  with  God's  'poor.  They  forget 
all  other  need,  as  Israel  did,  in  their  need  of  God.  Their 
outward  poverty  is  only  the  weeds  of  their  heart's 
widowhood.  But  fehovah  of  hosts  shall  make  to  all  the 
peoples  in  this  mountain  a  banquet  of  fat  things,  a  ban- 
quet of  wines  on  the  lees,  fat  things  bemarrowed,  wines  on 
the  lees  refined. 

We  need  only  note  here — for  it  will  come  ^ip  for 
detailed  treatment  in  connection  with  the  second  half 
of  Isaiah — that  the  centre  of  Israel's  restored  life  is  to 
be  the  Temple,  not,  as  in  Isaiah's  day,  the  king ;  that  her 
dispersed  are  to  gather  from  all  parts  of  the  world  ai 


XXV.— xxvii.]  GOD'S  POOR.  443 

the  sound  of  the  Temple  trumpet;  and  that  her  national 
life  is  to  consist  in  worship  (cf.  xxvii.  13). 


These  then  were  four  aspects  of  Israel's  poverty  of 
heart:  a  hunger  for  pardon,  a  hunger  for  justice,  a 
hunger  for  home,  and  a  hunger  for  God.  For  the 
returning  Jews  these  wants  were  satisfied  only  to  reveal 
a  deeper  poverty  still,  the  complaint  and  comfort  of 
which  we  must  reserve  to  another  chapter. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE  RESURRECTION. 
Isaiah  xxvi.  14 — 19;  xxv.  6—9. 

GRANTED  the  pardon,  the  justice,  the  Temple  and 
the  God,  which  the  returning  exiles  now  en- 
joyed, the  possession  of  these  only  makes  more  painful 
the  shortness  of  Hfe  itself.  This  life  is  too  shallow  and 
too  frail  a  vessel  to  hold  peace  and  righteousness  and 
worship  and  the  love  of  God.  St.  Paul  has  said.  If  in 
this  life  only  we  have  hope  in  Christ,  we  are  of  all  men 
most  miserable.  What  avails  it  to  have  been  pardoned, 
to  have  regained  the  Holy  Land  and  the  face  of  God,  if 
the  dear  dead  are  left  behind  in  graves  of  exile,  and 
all  the  living  must  soon  pass  into  that  captivity,*  from 
which  there  is  no  return  ? 

]  It  must  have  been  thoughts  hk^  these,  which  led  to 
the  expression  of  one  of  the  most  abrupt  and  powerful 

'  of  the  few  hopes  of  the  resurrection  which  the  Old 
Testament  contains.  This  hope,  which  lightens  chap, 
xxv.  7,  8,  bursts  through  again — without  logical  con- 
nection with  the  context — in  vv.  14 — 19  of  chap.  xxvi. 
The  EngUsh  version  makes  ver.  14  to  continue  the 
reference  to  the  lords,  whom  in  ver.  13  Israel  confesses 
to  have  served  instead  of  Jehovah.  "  They  are  dead; 
they  shall  not  live :  they  are  deceased;  they  shall  not  rise." 

*  H^iekiah's  expression  for  death,  xxxviii.  12. 


xxvi.  14—19.]  THE  RESURRECTION.  445 

Our  translators  have  thus  intruded  into  their  version 
the  verb  "  they  are,"  of  which  the  original  is  without  a 
trace.  In  the  original,  dead  and  deceased  (Uterally  shades) 
are  themselves  the  subject  of  the  sentence — a  new  sub- 
ject and  without  logical  connection  with  what  has  gone 
before.  The  literal  translation  of  ver.  14  therefore  runs  : 
Dead  men  do  not  live;  shades  do  not  rise :  wherefore  Thou 
visitest  them  and  desiroyest  them,  and  perisheth  all 
memory  of  them.  The  prophet  states  a  fact,  and  draws 
an  inference.  The  fact  is,  that  no  one  has  ever  returned 
from  the  dead ;  the  inference,  that  it  is  God's  own  visi- 
tation or  sentence  which  has  gone  forth  upon  them,  and 
they  have  really  ceased  to  exist.  But  how  intolerable 
a  thought  is  this  in  presence  of  the  other  fact  that  God 
has  here  on  earth  above  gloriously  enlarged  and  esta- 
blished His  people  (ver.  15).  Thou  hast  increased  the 
nation,  Jehovah;  Thou  hast  increased  the  nation.  Thou 
hast  covered  Thyself  .voith  glory ;  Thou  hast  expanded  all 
the  boundaries  of  the  land.  To  this  follows  a  verse  ( 1 6), 
the  sense  of  which  is  obscure,  but  palpable.  It  "  feels  " 
to  mean  that  the  contrast  which  the  prophet  has  just 
painted  between  the  absolute  perishing  of  the  dead  and 
the  glory  of  the  Church  above  ground  is  the  cause  of 
great  despair  and  groaning :  O  Jehovah,  in  The  Trouble 
they  supplicate  Thee ;  they  pour  out  incantations  when 
Thy  discipline  is  upon  them.*      In  face  of  The  Trouble 


•  I  think  this  must  be  the  meaning  of  ver.  16,  if  we  are  to  alJow 
that  it  has  any  sympathy  with  vv.  14  and  15.  Brcdcnkamp  suggi  rst3 
that  the  persons  meant  are  themselves  the  dead.  Jcliovah  has  glori- 
fied the  Church  on  earth  ;  but  the  dead  below  are  still  in  trouble,  and 
pour  out  prayers  (Virgil's  "  preces  inndnnt,"  ^  net  d,  vi.,  55),  beneath  this 
punishment  which  God  causes  to  pass  on  all  men  (ver.  I4).  Breden- 
kamp  bases  this  exegesis  chiefly  on  the  word  for  "  praj-cr,"  which  means 
chirping  or  whispering,  a  kind  of  voice  imputed  to  the  shades  by  the 


446  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

and  The  Discipline  par  excellence  of  God,  what  else  can 
man  do  but  betake  himself  to  God  ?  God  sent  death  ;  in 
death  He  is  the  only  resource.  Israel's  feelings  in  pre- 
sence of  The  Trouble  are  now  expressed  in  ver.  17:  Like 
as  a  woman  with  child  that  draweth  near  the  time  of  her 
delivery  ivritheth  and  cricth  out  in  her  pangs,  so  have  we 
been  before  Thee,  O  Jehovah.  Thy  Church  on  earth  is 
pregnant  with  a  life,  which  death  does  not  allow  to  come 
to  the  birth.  We  have  been  with  child;  we  have  been  in 
the  pangs,  as  it  were;  we  have  brought  forth  wind;  wc 
make  not  the  earth,  in  spite  of  all  we  have  really  accom- 
plished upon  it  in  our  return,  our  restoration  and  our 
enjoyment  of  Thy  presence — we  make  not  the  earth  sal- 
vation, neither  are  the  inhabitants  of  the  world  born.* 

The  figures  are  bold.  Israel  achieves,  through 
God's  grace,  everything  but  the  recovery  of  her  dead  ; 
this,  which  alone  is  worth  calling  salvation,  remains 
wanting  to  her  great  record  of  deliverances.  The  living 
Israel  is  restored,  but  how  meagre  a  proportion  of  the 
people  it  is  !  The  graves  of  home  and  of  exile  do  not 
give  up  their  dead.  These  are  not  born  again  to  be 
inhabitants  of  the  upper  world. 

The  figures  are  bold,  but  bolder  is  the  hope  that 
breaks  from  them.     Like  as  v;hen  the  Trumpet  shall 

Hebrews  and  other  ancient  peoples.  But  while  this  word  does 
originally  mean  zvhispering,  it  is  never  in  Scripture  applied  to  the 
dead,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  frequent  name  for  divinitig  or  incan- 
tation. I  therefore  have  felt  compelled  to  understand  it  as  used  in 
this  passage  of  the  living,  whose  only  resource  in  face  of  death —  Goa's 
disripline  par  excellence — is  to  pour  out  incantations.  If  it  be  objected 
^hat  the  prophet  would  scarcely  parallel  the  ordinar}-  incantatinns  on 
-leHali  of  the  dead  with  supplications  to  Jehovah,  the  answer  is  that 
he  is  talking  poetically  or  popularly. 

*  English  version, /an'efi ;  '.e.,  like  our  expression  for  the  birth  of 
anijials,  dropped. 


xxvi.  14- 19.]  THE  RESURRECTION.  447 

sound,  ver.  19  peals  forth  the  promise  of  the  resurrec- 
tion— peals  the  promise  forth,  in  spite  of  all  experience, 
unsupported  by  any  argument,  and  upon  the  strength  of 
its  own  inherent  music.  Thy  dead  shall  live  !  my  dead 
b^ies  shall  arise  !  The  change  of  the  personal  pronoun  is 
singularly  dramatic.  Returned  Israel  is  the  speaker,  first 
speaking  to  herself:  thy  dead,  as  if  upon  the  depopulated 
land,  in  face  of  all  its  homes  in  rum,  and  only  the 
sepulchres  of  ages  standing  grim  and  steadfast,  she 
addressed  some  despairing  double  of  herself;  and 
secondly  speaking  ©/"herself:  my  dead  bodies,  as  if  all  the 
inhabitants  of  these  tombs,  though  dead,  were  still  her 
own,  still  part  of  her,  the  living  Israel,  and  able  to  arise 
and  bless  with  their  numbers  their  bereaved  mother. 
These  she  now  addresses  :  Awake  and  sing,  ye  dwellers 
in  the  dust,  for  a  dew  of  lights  is  Thy  dew,  and  the  land 
bringeth  forth  the  dead* 

If  one  has  seen  a  place  of  graves  in  the  East,  he  will 
appreciate  the  elements  of  this  figure,  which  takes  dust 
for  death  and  dew  for  life.  With  our  damp  graveyards 
mould  has  become  the  traditional  trappings  of  death ; 
but  where  under  the  hot  Eastern  sun  things  do  not  rot 
into  lower  forms  of  life,  but  crumble  into  sapless  powder, 
that  will  not  keep  a  worm  in  life,  dust  is  the  natural 
symbol  of  death.  When  they  die,  men  go  not  to  feed 
fat  the  mould,  but  dmvn  into  the  dust;  and  there  the 
foot  of  the  living  falls  silent,  and  his  voice  is  choked,  and 
the  light  is  thickened  and  in  retreat,  as  if  it  were 
creeping  away  to  die.  The  only  creatures  the  visitor 
starts  are  timid,  unclean  bats,  that  flutter  and  whisper 
about  him  like  the  ghosts  of  the  dead.     There  are  no 


*  Technical  Hebrew  word  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  underworld — 
the  shades. 


448  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

flowers  in  an  Eastern  cemetery;  and  the  withered 
branches  and  other  ornaments  are  thickly  powdered 
with  the  same  dust  that  chokes,  and  silences  and 
darkens  all. 

Hence  the  Semitic  conception  of  the  underworld  was 
dominated  by  dust.  It  was  not  water  nor -fire  nor 
frost  nor  altogether  darkness,  which  made  the  infernal 
prison  horrible,  but  that  upon  its  floor  and  rafters, 
hewn  from  the  roots  and  ribs  of  the  primeval  mountains, 
dust  lay  deep  and  choking.  Amid  all  the  horrors  he 
imagined  for  the  dead,  Dante  did  not  include  one  more 
awful  than  the  horror  of  dust.  The  picture  which  the 
northern  Semites  had  before  them  when  they  turned 
their  faces  to  the  wall  was  of  this  kind.* 

The  house  of  darkness.  .  .  . 

The  house  men  enter,  but  cannot  depart  from. 

The  road  men  go,  but  cannot  return. 

The  house  from  whose  dwellers  the  light  is  withdrawn. 

The  place  where  dust  is  their  food,  their  nourishment  clay. 

The  light  thej'  behold  not ;  in  darkness  they  dwell. 

They  are  clothed  like  birds,  all  fluttering  wings. 

On  the  door  and  the  gateposts,  the  dust  lieth  deep. 

Either,  then,  an  Eastern  sepulchre,  or  this  its  infernal 
double,  was  gaping  before  the  prophet's  eyes.  What 
more  final  and  hopeless  than  the  dust  and  the  dark  of  it  ? 

But  for  dust  there  is  dew,  and  even  to  graveyards 
the  morning  comes  that  brings  dew  and  light  together. 
The  wonder  of  dew  is  that  it  is  given  from  a  clear 
heaven,  and  that  it  comes  to  sight  with  the  dawn.  If  the 
Oriental  looks  up  when  dew  is  falling,  he  sees  nothing 
to  thank  for  it  between  him  and  the  stars.  If  he  sees 
dew  in  the  morning,  it  is  equal  liquid  and  lustre  ;  it 
seems   to  distil  from   the  beams  of  the  sun — the  sun, 

*  Extracted  from  the  Assj-rian  Descent  of  Istar  to  Hades  (Dr. 
Jeremias'  German  translation,  p.  ii,  and  Records  of  the  Past,  i.,  145). 


xxvi.  14—19.]  THE  RESURRECTION.  4^9 

which  riscth  with  healing  under  his  wings.  The  dew 
is  thus  doubly  "dew  of  light."  But  our  prophet  ascribes 
the  dew  of  God,  that  is  to  raise  the  dead,  neither  to 
stars  nor  dawn,  but,  because  of  its  Divine  power,  to  that 
higher  supernal  glory  which  the  Hebrews  conceived  to 
have  existed  before  the  sun,  and  which  they  styled,  as 
t.iey  styled  their  God,  by  the  plural  of  majesty :  A  dew 
of  h'ghts  is  Thy  dew*  As,  when  the  dawn  comes,  the 
drooping  flowers  of  yesterday  are  seen  erect  and 
lustrous  with  the  dew,  every  spike  a  crown  of  glory, 
so  also  shall  be  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  There 
is  no  shadow  of  a  reason  for  limiting  this  promise  to 
that  to  which  some  other  passages  of  resurrection  in 
the  Old  Testament  have  to  be  limited :  a  corporate 
restoration  of  the  holy  State  or  Church.  This  is  the 
resurrection  of  its  individual  members  to  a  community 
which  is  already  restored,  the  recovery  by  Israel  of  her 
dead  men  and  women  from  their  separate  graves,  each 
with  his  own  freshness  and  beauty,  in  that  glorious 
morning  when  the  Sun  of  righteousness  shall  arise, 
with  healing  under  His  wings — Thy  detv,  O  Jehovah  ! 

Attempts  are  so  often  made  to  trace  the  hopes  of 
resurrection,  which  break  the  prevailing  silence  of  the 
Old  Testament  on  a  future  life,  to  foreign  influences 
Experienced  in  the  Exile,  that  it  is  well  to  errtphasize 
the  origin  and  occasion  of  the  hopes  that  utter  them- 
selves so  abruptly  in  this  passage.  Surely  nothing 
could  be  more  inextricably  woven  with  the  national 
fortunes  of  Israel,  as  nothing  could  be  more  native  and 
original  to  Israel's  temper,  than  the  verses  just  ex- 
pounded. We  need  not  deny  that  their  residence  among 
a  people,  accustomed  as  the  Babylonians  were  to  belief 
in    the    resurrection,   may    have    thawed    in    the  Jews 

*  Cf.  James  i.  1 7. 
VOL.  L  29 


450  THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH. 

that  reserve  which  the  Old  Testament  clearly  shows  that 
they  exhibited  towards  a  future  life.  The  Babylonians 
themselves  had  received  most  of  their  suggestions  of 
the  next  world  from  a  non-Semitic  race  ;  and  therefore 
it  would  not  be  to  imagine  anything  alien  to  the 
ascertained  methods  of  Providence  if  we  were  to 
suppose  that  the  Hebrews,  who  showed  what  we  have 
already  called  the  Semitic  want  of  interest  in  a  future 
life,  were  intellectually  tempered  by  their  foi  eign 
associations  to  a  readiness  to  receive  any  suggest!,  ns 
of  immortality,  which  the  Spirit  of  God  might  offer  them 
through  their  own  religious  experience.  That  it  v»as 
this  last,  which  was  the  effective  cause  of  Israel's  hopes 
for  the  resurrection  of  her  dead,  our  passage  puts  beyond 
doubt.  Chap.  xxvi.  shows  us  that  the  occasion  of  these 
hopes  was  what  is  not  often  noticed :  the  returned 
exiles'  disappointment  with  the  meagre  repopulation  of 
the  holy  territory.  A  restoration  of  the  State  or  com- 
munity was  not  enough  :  the  heart  of  Israel  wanted 
back  in  their  numbers  her  dead  sons  and  daughters. 

If  the  occasion  of  these  hopes  was  thus  an  event  in 
Israel's  ow^n  national  history,  and  if  the  impulse  to  them 
was  given  by  so  natural  an  instinct  of  her  own  heart, 
Israel  was  equally  indebted  to  herself  for  the  convictions 
that  the  instinct  was  not  in  vain.  Nothing  is  more 
clear  in  our  passage  than  that  Israel's  first  ground  of 
hope  in  a  future  life  was  her  simple,  untaught  reflection 
upon  the  power  of  her  God.  Death  was  His  chastening. 
Death  came  from  Him,  and  remained  in  His  power. 
Surely  He  would  deliver  from  it.  This  was  a  very  old 
belief  in  Israel.  The  Lord  killcth  and  maketh  alive ; 
He  bringclh  down  to  Sheol  and  hringeth  up.  Such  words, 
of  course,  might  be  only  an  extreme  figure  for  recovery 
from  disease,   and   the   silence  of  so  great  a  saint  as 


xxvi.  14— 19.J  THE  RESURRECTION.  451 

Hezekiah  about  any  other  issue  into  life  than  by 
convalescence  from  mortal  sickness  staggers  us  into 
doubt  whether  an  Israelite  ever  did  think  of  a  resurrec- 
tion. But  still  there  was  Jehovah's  almightiness  ;  a 
man  could  rest  his  future  on  that,  even  if  he  had  not 
light  to  think  out  what  sort  of  a  future  it  v^rould  be.  So 
mark  in  our  passage,  how  confidence  is  chiefly  derived 
from  the  simple  utterance  of  the  name  of  Jehovah,  and 
how  He  is  hailed  as  our  God.  It  seems  enough  to 
the  prophet  to  connect  life  with  Him  and  to  say  merely, 
Thy  dew.  As  death  is  God's  own  discipline,  so  life.  Thy 
dew,  is  with  Him  also. 

Thus  in  its  foundation  the  Old  Testament  doctrine  of 
the  resurrection  is  but  the  conviction  of  the  sufficiency 
of  God  Himself,  a  conviction  which  Christ  turned 
upon  Himself  when  He  said,  /  am  the  Resurrection 
and  the  Life.    Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also. 

If  any  object  that  in  this  picture  of  a  resurrection  we 
have  no  real  persuasion  of  immortality,'  but  simply  the 
natural,  though  impossible,  wish  of  a  bereaved  people 
that  their  dead  should  to-day  rise  from  their  graves  to 
share  to-day's  return  and  glory — a  revival  as  special  and 
extraordinary  as  that  appearing  of  the  dead  in  the  streets 
of  Jerusalem  when  the  Atonement  was  accomplished^ 
but  by  no  means  that  general  resurrection  at  the  last 
day  which  is  an  article  of  the  Christian  faith — if  any 
one  should  bring  this  objection,  then  let  him  be  referred 
to  the  previous  promise  of  immortality  in  chap.  xxv. 
The  universal  and  final  character  of  the  promise  made 
there  is  as  evident  as  of  that  for  which  Paul  borrowed 
its  terms  in  order  to  utter  the  absolute  consequences  of 
the  resurrection  of  the  Son  of  God  :  Death  is  swallowed 
up  in  victory.  For  the  prophet,  having  in  ver.  6  de- 
scribed the  restoration  of  the  people,  whom  exile  had 


452  THE  BOOK   OF  ISA t AH. 

Starved  with  a  famine  of  ordinances,  to  a  feast  in  Zion 
of  Jat  things  and  ivines  on  the  lees  well  refined,  intimates 
that  as  certainly  as  exile  has  been  abolished,  with  its 
dearth  of  spiritual  intercourse,  so  certainly  shall  God 
Himself  destroy  death  :  And  He  shall  swallow  up  in  this 
mountain — perhaps  it  is  imagined,  as  the  sun  devours 
the  morning  mist  on  the  hills — the  mask  of  the  veil,  the 
veil  that  is  upon  all  the  peoples,  and  the  film  spun  upon 
all  the  nations.  He  hath  swalloived  up  death  for  ever, 
and  the  Lord  Jehovah  shall  wipe  away  tears  from  off  all 
faces,  and  the  reproach  of  His  people  shall  He  remove 
from  off  all  the  earth,  for  Jehovah  hath  spoken  it.  And  they 
shall  say  in  that  day.  Behold,  this  is  our  God :  we  have 
waited  for  Him,  and  He  shall  save  us;  this  is  Jehovah :  we 
have  waited  for  Him  ;  we  will  rejoice  and  be  glad  in  His 
salvation.  Thus  over  all  doubts,  and  in  spite  of  uni- 
versal human  experience,  the  prophet  depends  for 
immortality  on  God  Himself.  In  chap.  xxvi.  3  our 
version  beautifully  renders.  Thou  wilt  keep  him  in 
perfect  peace  whose  mind  is  stayed  on  Thee,  because  he 
trustcth  in  Thee.  This  is  a  confidence  valid  for  the  next 
life  as  well  as  for  this.  Therefore  trust  ye  in  the  Lord 
for  ever.     Amen. 

Almighty  God,  we  praise  Thee  that,  in  the  weakness 
of  all  our  love  and  the  darkness  of  all  our  knowledge 
before  death.  Thou  hast  placed  assurance  of  eternal 
life  in  simple  faith  upon  Th^'self  Let  this  faith  be 
richly  ours.  By  Thine  omnipotence,  by  Thy  righteous- 
ness, by  the  love  Thou  hast  vouchsafed,  we  lift  our- 
selves and  rest  upon  Thy  word.  Because  I  live,  ye  shall 
live  also.  Oh  keep  us  steadfast  in  union  with  Thyself, 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 


INDEX    TO    CHAPS.    I.— XXXIX. 


Chapters  of  Isaiah.                   Date  b.c. 

Chapters  of  the 
Exposition. 

i.   .          .          • 

701        ..         , 

I.,  XIX.,  p.  311  <T. 

ii.-iv.      .         •         . 

740-735 

II. 

V.  .           .          •          < 

735 

III. 

vi.          .        •        < 

740;  written  735  01 

727 

IV.,  XXVI.,  391  fc 

vii.-ix.  7        •        , 

734-732 

VI. 

vii.  14  ff.        .        , 

734        . 

VII.  133 

viii.        .        •        , 

734-733 

vn.  135 

ix.  1-7  .        •        . 

732 

vir.  136 

ix.  8-x.  4       •        , 

735        •   ■     . 

III.  47  ff. 

X.  5-34  . 

Alxnit  721     .         , 

IX.  147 

xi.  [xii.]          .         , 

About  720?  . 

X. 

xi.  1-6    . 

VII.  138 

xiii.xiv.  23  .         , 

?            .           .         , 

XXVII, 

xiv.  24-27      . 

t         Towards  701 

XVII.  272 

xiv.  28-32 

705         • 

XVII.  272 

XV. -xvi.  12    . 

? 

XVII.  273 

xvi.  13,  14     . 

,         711  or  704?  . 

XVII.  273 

xvii.  I-II       , 

,         Between  736  and 

732 

XVII.  274 

xvii.  12-14    • 

?    . 

XVII.  274,  277,  281  f. 

xviii.      .         . 

■         7 1 1  or  towards  70 

I? 

XVII.  275 

xix.        .         , 

■         703  or  after  700  ? 

XVII.  275,  278,  284  ff. 

XX.           .           • 

711-709 

XI.  19S-200,  XVII.  276 

xxi.  i-io        , 

(         Probably  709 

XI.  2CI,  XVII.  276 

xxi.  II,  12    « 

,         Between  704  and 

701 

XVII.  276 

xxi.  13,  17    . 

•          '            ■          . 

XVII.  277 

xn.u.       .         . 

701 

XIX.,  XX. 

xxiii.      .        , 

,         703  or  702     . 

XVII.  277,  XVIII. 

xxiv.      .        • 

? 

XXVIII. 

xxv.-xxvii.     • 

.         ?             .         . 

XXIX.-XXX. 

xxviii.    .         . 

•          About  725     , 

VIII.  149 

xxix.-xxxii.    « 

• 

p.  207 

454 


INDEX   TO   CHAPS.  I.— XXXIX. 


Chapters 

OP  ISAI 

AH.                    Date  b.c. 

Chapters  of  the 
Exposition. 

xxix. 

About  703     . 

XII. 

XXX. 

About  702     . 

XIII. 

xxxi. 

,         About  702     . 

XIV. 

xxxii.  1-8 

1        About  702?  .        , 

XV. 

xxxii.  9-20 

1         Date  uncertain 

XVI. 

xxxiii.    . 

.         701         .         . 

XX.,  XXI.,  207,  304 

xxxiv.    . 

?             .         . 

XXIX.  438  ff. 

XXXV.       . 

?             .         . 

XXIX.  440  f. 

xxxvi.  I 

701 

303  f- 

xxxvi.  2-xxxvii. 

701        ..         , 

303  f. 

xxxvi.  2-22 

701 

XXII.  303  £ 

xxxvii,  . 

. 

701         ..         , 

XXIII. 

xxxviii.-xxxix. 

Date  uncertain 

XXV.  304 

xxxviii. 

. 

>          .           .          . 

XXVI.  393 

xxxix.    . 

, 

•          •           •         • 

XI.  201 

SHORT     INDEX     OF     SUBJECTS. 


Ahaz,  98 ;  compared  with  Charles 

I.,  99,    1033".,   113;  Judas  of 

Old  Testament,  1 18. 
Animals,  the  lower,  190  ff.;  our 

mediate rship  to,  193. 
An  liropomorphism,  144. 
A.-.ibia,  277. 
Aram,  94,  103  flf. 
Ashdod,  198. 
Assyria  and  Assyrians,  53,  92  f., 

95,  97, 103  f.,  122,  and  passim. 
Atheism,  two  kinds  of,  172  ff. 

Babylon,  93,  20I,  405. 
Babylonian  captivity,  201,  402. 
Bribery,  47. 

Captivity  of  Israel,  first,  128; 
second,  148. 

Christ,  80,  142  ff.,  254  ff.,  328,  426. 

Church,  origin  of  idea  of,  126. 

Commerce,  296. 

Conscience,  6 ;  its  threefold  cha- 
racter, 12;  simplicity,  151. 

Cromwell,  160  ff.,  220. 

Damascus,  95,^120,  122,  274. 
Drunkenness,  44  f.,  152  ff. 

Earthquake,  50, 

Edom,  94,  276,  438  ff. . 

Egypt,  92,  96, 197  ff.,222  ff., passim. 

Ekron,  308  f. 

Eliakim,  317. 

Ethiopia,  93,  222,  275. 

Faith,  moral  results  of,  ic6  f.,  163 
f. ;  power  to  shape  history, 
109,  352  ff. 


Fatalism,  no. 

Forgiveness  of  sin,  13,71  ff.,326ff., 

361,381. 
Formalism,  216,  240. 
Free-will,  82. 

Glory,  68. 

Hamath,  94. 

Heine,  158,  242,  413. 

Hezekiah,  352,  378  ff ,  passim. 

Holiness,  636. 

Holy  Spirit,  185—188. 

Immanuel,  102,  115,  124  ff.,  133  ff. 
Immortality,  385  ff.,  394  ff.,  410, 

444  ff- 

Individual,  the,  and  the  com- 
munity, 389  ff. 

Inspiration,  123  ff.,  213,  372. 

Isaiah:  apprenticeship,  19;  youth, 
21,  59;  a  son  of  Jerusalem, 
22  ;  threefold  vision,  23 — 25  ; 
idealist,  25;  realist,  27;  pro- 
phet, 30  ;  patriotism,  a  con- 
science of  his  country's  sins, 
30  f . ;  call  and  consecration, 
57  ff. ;  personality,  75  f.,  253  ; 
comp.  with  Mazzini,  85 — 87  ; 
with  Moses,  88  ;  contributicia 
to  religious  development  ol 
Israel,  loi,  284,  2S8  ;  no 
fatalist,  no;  habit  of  appeal- 
ing to  the  people,  119;  savv.i 
from  the  popular  drift,  12 1  ; 
scorn,  127 ;  sanity,  109, 154  I'., 
166,  300  ;  comp.  with  Crom- 
well, i6off.,  220;  self-control, 
166;  regard  for  animals,  190; 
walks   stripped   for   a  sig.i 


456 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS. 


199;  inspiration,  213,  372; 
working  of  his  imagination, 
234;  style,  281;  humanity, 
285,  294 ;  triumph,  323  ff.  ; 
imagination  and  conscience, 
335 ;  lesson  for  all  time,  366; 
contrasted  with  Crusaders, 
367  ;  personal  religion,  391  ; 
ideal,  392;  satire,  29,139,156. 
Israel,  religious  condition,  99; 
and  Greece,  365. 

Jerusalem,  22,  25  ff.,  169  f.,  211  f., 
231  f.,  243,  S67  f,  279, 
Book  IV.,  passim. 

"  King  Lear,"  49,  §5. 

Land  question,  41  ff. 
Language,  abuse  of,  260. 

Maher-shalal-hash-baz,  I20. 
Mazzini,  84—86. 
Merodach-baladan,  200,  376. 
Messiah,  89,  90,  115  ff.,  129,  131 — 

144,  180  ff.,  249. 
Moab,  94,  273. 
Monotheism,   moral  and  political 

advantages,  108 — 1 10;  growth 

in  Israel,  357,  363. 

Name  of  the  Lord,  233  ff. 

Nature,  fourfold  use  of  by  the 
prophets,  16  f. ;  redemption 
of,  188  ;  destruction  of,  417  ff. 

Palestine,  92. 

People,    the,    ultimately    respon- 
sible, 119,  198,  224  ff. 
Philistines,  94,  272. 


Phoenicia,  94,  96,  2S8  ff. 
Poetry,  Hebrew,  41 1. 
Polytheism,  99,  107. 
Preaching  the  word,  82,  83. 
Prophecy,    its    power   of    vision, 

23 — 25 ;  its  service  to  religion, 

100  f. 
Providence,  98. 

Rabshakeh,  the,  343  ff. 
Remnant,  the,  31,   87,    lOI,    126, 

129,  and  passim. 
Resurrection,  387,  444  ff. 
Return    from   exile,    195,   401    ff., 

429,  440  f.,  450. 
Righteousness,   Isaiah's    doctrine 

of,  344  ff. 

Sacrament,  an  Old  Testament,  74. 
Snmaria,  95,  147,  152  ff, 
Sargon,  148,  169,  198  ff. 
Scepticism,  15. 
Sennacherib,    209,    302,    308   ff., 

355  ff. 
Serbonian  bog,  361. 
Shcbna,  317. 
Sheol,  385,  410,  447  fl. 
Shiloah,  122. 
Sin.   52,  69,   passim ;    effect    on 

man's  material  circumstance 

416. 
Sorrow,  man's  abuse  of,  54- 

Tiglath-pilescr  II.,  96,  103  L 

Uzziah,  59  f.,  98. 

War,  51. 

Women,  Isaiah  to,  262, 

Wrath  of  God,  47  f.,  55. 


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His  search  at  all  times  seems  to  have  been  for  truth,  and  that  which 
he  finds  he  states  with  simple  clearness  and  with  fearless  honesty. 
HIS  WORKS  ARE  IN  THEIR  DEPARTMENT  OF  HISTORY  AS 
VALUABLE  AS  THE  VOLUMES  OF  C  BBON  ARE  IN  SECULAR 
HISTORY.  THEY  DESERVE  A  PLACE  IN  EVERY  LIBRARY  IN 
THE  LAND.  THIS  NEW  EDITION,  in  8  vols.,  contains  AN  AVERAGE 
OF  OVER  900  PAGES  per  volume.  PRICE,  $12.00  PER  SET. 
(Formerly  published  in  14  vols,  at  $24.50.) 


165 


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SLIITH 
Isaiah,   v. 1 


G—   Exegesis 


